The big day finally arrived and between Christmas Eve (the picture of our tree on Christmas Eve is to the left) and Christmas Day, it was a whole lot of fun—especially for the kids!Christmas Eve
Traditionally, for us, Christmas Eve consists of a gathering of Deb's family and my daughter Kelly and her husband Will at our house to have dinner and just enjoy. Will and Kelly couldn't make it on Christmas Eve this year (they came to our house later in the week), so it was just TJ, Criesta and their kids Jordan and Joey, Deb and me and Elizabeth (and, of course, the cats).
Joey got a kick out of one of our house decorations that plays music ("Jingle Bells") when you pinch its' hand and you can see in this picture how "jazzed" he was! Most of what Joey wanted to do that evening was play with the "Jingle Bells doll." Deb had made her famous turkey chili and we all enjoyed that!
The kids got to open one present each and Criesta read "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids.
Needless to say, by the end of the evening, we were all jingled out! TJ, Criesta and the kids left to go home so Santa could come to their house and we got ready for the "big day."
Christmas Day
Both of us were up early on Christmas Day (can't get the "kids" out of us!)—not so much to open presents or anything like that, but just to enjoy the "calm before the storm" and revel in the fact that it was Christmas! It was a cold and stormy day here, perfect for Christmas (all that was missing was snow, which we actually had on Christmas night).
Deb had made all kinds of goodies for the day and was just glad that the day was finally here so she could rest (well, sort of!). TJ, Criesta and the kids got to our house about 10:30 am and the festivities really began! The real kids (Joey & Jordan) were, well... to say the least, excited!
We finally (by their clock) got to the presents and of course, had the kids open theirs first so they could play while the adults opened their presents later. That worked... sort of.
Kids being kids, they were anxious to get all their presents open and wondered where all the rest of them were when they were done! They helped us open our presents too.
The kids mostly got toys and a few clothes. Bill had made a lot of photo-type gifts for everyone: pens, coasters, framed photos, bookmarks, etc., all the pics being from the group of pictures he chose for the Christmas letter. Deb had been preparing for the day for several days and was just glad it was finally here.
All in all, it was a great day. It was a little much for the kids and they were totally wired and got even more so as the day progressed! We had a great dinner, watched some videos and just were together for the day.
The Day After
Hard to believe... All the preparation and it's done so quickly. We had small snow and ice storm on Christmas night and the roads were pretty slippery the day after Christmas.
Deb and I took the day after Christmas to go and see a movie (Valkyrie), which we really enjoyed. With lots of leftovers from Christmas day, we didn't go out for dinner—just came home and had some of the great food Deb had made for Christmas.
We hope all our friends and family out there had a great Christmas and I'll post more in a few days before the new year (2009!) starts it all anew again!
Merry Christmas!
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