Christmas Day NIGHT :)

After all of the gifts...I worked on dinner! We had a gentleman in our ward smoke three turkeys for us, so all I had to do was warm up the turkey. I also did stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry salad, sweet potatoes, tossed salad etc. I didn't make my usual pies, because we planned to have cupcakes for dessert, as part of the birthday party for Jesus. After dinner we wanted to do the nativity story with the kids. Annie and I hunted around for some costumes. (Luckily, I still had a tub of costumes that a lady in our ward had for the Christmas party) That activity went pretty well, outside, on the driveway...until the lambs started running around, with the shepherds running after them...then everything got crazy and turned into a lipsinc, song and dance party! We eventually did have the cupcakes with candles...but it was abit windy for that. It was a fun evening for the kids though. (Hailey and Jaden were Mary and Joseph. Eli and Owen were shepherds. The lambs were Dallin, Hazel, and Noah. The star was Evie. The wise men were Nathan, Nicholas, and Jared. Emmy and Savie were angels.)

Christmas Day- 2016

Since Christmas was on Sunday, we had a few linguistics to work out...like Santa and church :) After much discussion on "Santa Gifts"... we worked out a plan for most of the gifts to be here on Sunday morning, but everyone go to church and then open gifts when we got home. I planned for everyone to pack their own "snack-lunch-bag" to eat in the car on the way home...no wasting time for lunch :) (and that was a fun idea, for all of the kids to pack their own bag. I had small bottles of water and lots of snack items to choose from. There were also a few leftover Subway sandwiches in the refrig at church.) Also, Sunday at church was special...our family did two of the musical numbers for Sacrament meeting. The kids singing "Away in a Manger" was especially interesting with Eli holding a microphone and leading the way ;) His little "asleep" verses were not very lullaby - lol. Anyway...once we got home it was gifts, gifts, and more gifts. Soon after the huge pile of gifts upstairs was opened...our friend John Simmons drove the mule down the driveway, with MORE gifts. (Those gifts were the ones from Baba and Papa, delivered by Santa's, Texan, helper. It was awesome. This was my second favorite activity). In the very last picture, you can almost see the great surprised look on Hailey's face when she realized there were gifts in the back of the mule :)

  

Christmas 2016- 4.5

I did one post for the Saturday, daytime activities and now this one is for the Saturday evening activities...hence the 4.5 :) For dinner Saturday evening we had a taco bar. Just various tortillas, chips, tostadas with meat, cheese, lettuce, beans, rice etc. After dinner we did Christmas cookies. (I made the cookies earlier in the week- so this just entailed frosting and sprinkles...not sugar and flour all over my kitchen- lol.) We also had the cousin gift exchange and the Christmas Eve pajamas. Later we also had a couples dance on the porch, with music and Christmas lights- but I was too busy dancing with Ron and didn't get any pics. The song was "The Greatest Gift of All" by Lee Greenwood. (this was actually my favorite activity :) Here are some pics from the evening and the song. We did the cousin gifts one-at-a-time. The pajamas ...we passed out the gifts and opened all-at-once. I warned the girls, that my type two personality kicked in on the pajamas... I just couldn't do the crazy little kid footies for those bigger boys...so everyone got sweat pants and t shirts :) It was a great evening and great "cousin time".

Christmas 2016- 4

Everyone arrived by Friday evening , December 23. Earlier in the week I had prepared 4 pans of Lasagne for dinner, and had those in the freezer. Our first whole day together, Saturday, the 24th, was packed with activities. Family photo at 10:30, at a park in Kerrville. (The weather was not cooperating...it was raining.) Then we all went to the church for Owen's baptism, Luke's baby blessing, lunch, music practice, and cleaning the church. (Our church needs to be cleaned every Saturday. I decided since our family would be there using the building...out gift to the ward was for us to clean that day.) For lunch...I ordered Subway sandwiches, and brought paperware, chips, and cookies.