1/2 Way Mark

We've reached the 1/2 way mark in our Christmas celebration extravaganza. We've celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve and we had our own family celebration on Christmas Day. Next up is my big family celebration and Carie's family celebration this coming weekend.

It would be an understatement to say that the kids are amped up over Christmas.

They have patiently, joyfully, and excitedly waited for this time to come. We've had gifts under and around our tree for weeks, several of which they were instrumental in selecting, wrapping, and placing in the perfect spot. As time went on the gifts received added decorations and bows.

We were also blessed in that they totally left the packages alone. We didn't have any need to re-wrap anything, fix holes, etc... in any of the packages. They simply placed the packages under and around the tree and admired them. They knew the day was coming that we would all be able to reveal all of the surprises. I was probably (or absolutely) the worst at leaving the packages alone! Carie and the kids snuck some gifts, for me, into the mix of wrapped gifts. There was one in particular that had me perplexed. I love to examine the wrapped package and get my mind going on what it could possibly be. She had me stumped! Finally on Christmas Eve after Santa had arrived we sat in the room with the tree to just be still in the quietness for a few minutes. I picked up that package and examined it some more and quizzed her for any clues that she would be willing to reveal. She is so good at keeping secrets!

Christmas Eve day… I clearly remember my childhood days of waiting and waiting and waiting for what seemed like forever before we could begin tearing into packages. This year was no exception and the kids thought the time would never come. Several times we were asked "is it time yet?" We contemplated opening gifts prior to dinner; after all we didn't eat lunch (a huge turkey dinner at that) until 1:00. But Grandpa really wanted to eat supper (at 5:00) and then do gifts, so we did.

Throughout Christmas Eve day there were plenty of activities to help the time pass. After lunch they were able to open their Christmas ornaments and Christmas books from Great Grandma. The ornaments are a tradition generally carried out at Thanksgiving, but time got away from her this year. It was a nice precursor to the many packages that were yet to come. The kids then went off and read their books (all the same) from Great Grandma while Carie setup cookie decorating. That was a huge hit! Carie made some delicious sugar cookies and several batches of frosting. Spencer enjoyed his nap while the four older kids decorated several dozens of cookies with amazing amounts of frosting. More is better, right? Thankfully there were some cookies that escaped the frosting spree!!! Unfortunately Grandma's new carpet (in the kitchen!) didn't escape the frosting! They also enjoyed the party blowers and confetti that quickly decorated Grandpa & Grandma's living room. I'm certain Grandpa and Grandma were not thrilled with me! :)

We finally arrived to present time and it quickly turned into chaos. As near as I could tell, all 5 kids scored some really cool gifts. What everyone got, I couldn't say as it went entirely too fast. Spencer was enthralled with his "big presents", and big they were. The boy ended up with 3 very large, Spencer sized, packages to open and he was in love with all of them. The girls were also thrilled and thankful for all of their gifts.

That evening Carie and I managed to sneak off to Christmas Eve service. Carie happened to discover a nearby Church, of which she personally knows the Pastor, which offered a 10pm service. We contemplated throughout the day on what to do. It was most certainly too late for all of us to go. There was no way I was taking the kids to a 10pm service, especially after the day we had. The next question was really how much would we pay (in the days to come) for keeping them up so late. In the end we decided that we would very much enjoy going to service and my parents were willing to keep the kids at home with them. They enjoyed checking out some of their new toys! It was a beautiful service and featured the Berkey's from Mannheim Steamroller. Though, as the service went on we became worried about the time. We had "signed up" for an hour-ish service and as we were approaching 11pm we hadn't yet made it to the sermon. Straight up 11pm the sermon started and it was the shortest sermon I've ever experienced. We then were able to make it to one of my favorite parts of the service, the lighting of the candles and singing as the lights were dimmed. It was about 11:20 and we were headed out of Church and back to my parent’s house. All in all it was a great service but we realized how much we really appreciate our own Church home. We made awesome time back to my parent’s house and loading up as were on the road to home at 11:53. The kids were tired and fell asleep on the way home. Once home and everyone was settled Carie and I set out Santa's cookies and Rudolph's carrots. I felt bad that we hadn't made those arrangements earlier. We knew what they wanted to set out; I just wish we would have been able to execute it with them. Thankfully the kids didn’t seem concerned about it the next morning!

Christmas morning arrived and the kids slept in! Spencer appeared around 9am and the girls made their way downstairs at about 10am. Carie had prepared an incredible batch of sticky rolls that she assembled the night before and we were able to pop in the oven in the morning. The kids were too excited to check out all the gifts, but Carie and I thoroughly enjoyed the rolls! That recipe is most definitely a keeper!

Just before we get settled into gift opening I decide it would be brilliant to pop the ham into the oven. In a matter of minutes that task was complete and we were ready to focus on the kids, the gifts, and the excitement. A couple hours had passed and it dawned on me that maybe we ought to check the ham for fear of over cooking it. My first clue should have been the smell! As it turns out, the oven was turned off and the ham was very safe from over cooking. I thought the oven was on as it was warm when I put the ham in. But, Carie had (properly) turned it off after taking the rolls out! Hmm… what to do? Well, let’s turn on the oven and we’ll figure it all out. We continued to play with the new loot, the ham cooked, we tossed together a few other items for lunch, and we were finally ready to eat at about 2:00. Thank goodness we weren’t expecting company! After lunch, Spencer had an excellent nap and we continued to play with some of the new toys. I got to make bugs with the girls!

Later that evening we continued our tradition of going out for Chinese for dinner. It was delicious and really nice to be able to sit and enjoy a meal after playing all afternoon.

Soon after it was bedtime and time to get ready for a new day.

I extended our Christmas break by taking Wednesday off as well. We were able to enjoy our tickets to The Gingerbread Man, a highly anticipated event. We took all 5 kids (including B&B) and they were all on the edge of their seats through the whole show. Well, except the part where Beth thought it was a good idea to sit on the back of her seat. At one point Ellie was chosen to go up on stage and be a tree. She was thrilled and Abby and Ben were bummed that they weren’t chosen. But they all got to get autograph’s at the end of the performance followed by a treat of ice cream sundaes all around.

Back to reality Thursday and Friday and then we enter a full weekend of Christmas celebrations.