We had some friends over for Christmas Eve and it was great to share our traditions and talk about theirs as well. We did have our big ham meal with all the fixings. The kids were more excited about opening the English crackers before we ate, than the actual food.
The crackers did have fun surprises in them and we were all decked out with crowns for our meal.
After dinner, Chris read the Christmas story from Luke 2 while the rest of us acted it out.
The kids made sure to point out to me that I am not a born actress – I laugh too much because I’m out of my comfort zone. Everyone else did a great job staying in character and our friends jumped in to take any part that was needed.
Poor Nate was the multi-purpose animal . . . sheep, donkey, and camel. ‘Mary’ rode on his back to Bethlehem . . .
and later the ‘Wiseman Caleb’ galumped along on him to see the Christ child.
You can’t go through Christmas Eve without new pajamas. The kids were all excited.
Letters were written to Santa to sit along his cookie plate. Hannah wanted to also leave him some colored pictures. Caleb left him an ornament he made at the Primary Christmas activity.
The stockings were all hung and the kids had a fun Christmas Eve slumber party. Surprisingly, they all went to sleep very quickly.
We spent a quiet Christmas day enjoying each other and letting the kids play with their new things. The leftover food was great and we enjoyed spending MOST of the day in pajamas.
Our new tradition for next year: having the kids unwrap a Christmas book each night in December to read together as a family. My sister, who works for a publishing company, has really helped build our Christmas library. Deseret Book had a 50% off sale after Christmas for their books so I stocked up on some more. I’m looking forward to this new tradition.
Leave a Comment