Ahhh.... the holidays. Lush green branches spiraling the balcony and sprouted out of the Christmas tree covered in dancing lights and dazzling ornaments, miniature Nativity scenes and the traditional nutcrackers, the fresh scent of fudge and peppermint and all other delightful treats bursting out the kitchen and making you want to float above the ground, the warm feeling of love and peace sparkling in the eyes of all those around you and flying through the bitter cold air as if threatening to melt the frost....
Yes. It's wonderful.
So for Christmas Eve we went to the Ray's house. It is tradition to spend Christmas Eve at our cousins' house, and then have Christmas breakfast at ours, or the other way around, every year. This year, because they went sledding and riding on the Polar Express, we went to the Ray's and had a fondue party. It was delicious. There were three fondue things, one for the cubes of steak or chicken, one for the crescent roll pieces dipped in a sweet, creamy dip or little hot dogs that we rolled in a certain kind of dough first to make corn dogs, and a third filled with chocolate to dip fruit in. To go with that, there were cubes of French bread to go with a delicious homemade cheese saucy thing, and a salad. I could have stuffed myself sick if I didn't know any better. We also had the missionaries come over and we, the Ray's with their foster girls, and some other people did a white elephant gift exchange. That was pretty funny. I think I got a Harkin's soda cup. One of the other traditions my family has is for everyone to open a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve, and so we did that. There was decorating homemade gingerbread houses that were really just graham crackers but still adorable, too. When we went home, the little kids went to bed, and then Rachel and I got into our cute new jammies, got tiny squares of Mom's AMAZING rocky road peanut butter bars, and then went to bed as well.
Christmas morning:
The traditional picture...
Rachel and I got beach cruisers! We <3>groovey? Thanks, Santa.
Sophie got another "Princess dress." Everything for her these days has to be pink or princess, when it's not Dora the Explorer or under the sea.
Olivia got a darling necklace in her stocking. As you can see in the back round, Sophie got a bike, too.
Rachel's new iLuv.
Dad got a llama Webkinz. LOL. I guess he did serve a mission in Peru.
The other Webkinz.
Candy. Sigh. :)
Don't you just love my boots?!
The new TV. We put it up in the game room. It was funny, Adam kept trying to look around, saying, "I know there is a Wii hiding."There there wasn't.
At about eight or nine, we went over to our cousins', and we had a delicious breakfast of some kind of wonderful egg recipe and fruit. We got to hang out for a while, which was fun. Kendall and Paige got bikes, too, so at eleven or something we got dressed and rode to the library. Everyone was impressed by our bikes.
But then Grandpa Paul, Nanny Hanny ("Honey"), Aunt April, and our sweet old dog, Nikki, came to visit later that day from CA and (for Aunt April) Washington DC. Guess what? They got us a Wii! That was awesome.
Then, a little bit later, our cousins came for dinner. Between my mom and Aunt Sheryl, the Christmas meals are always outstanding. We had ham and turkey with their own sauces, funeral potatoes, warm rolls, apple cider, stuffing, and reunion salad. It was sooo good. And I was extremely glad that I had skipped lunch.
It was a spectacular Christmas. I am so grateful that we can all take the time to celebrate the birth of our Savior. I know our lives would never be the same without Him.
After Christmas:
Rachel's birthday is the 26th. Yep. The day after Christmas. And her first activity for Young Women's was to clean the church building at 8 am. So we rode or new bikes to the church on out bikes, our hands feeling like they would freeze to death. I was glad that afterward she got to go to Liberty Market to get a great breakfast, and then Brio for lunch. Apparently the food was delicious. She got to play on the new Wii, too, and Mom took her shopping. For dinner, Grandpa took us to get pizza and pizzookies. I got her a fashionable wallet and also split the price with Mom for a pair of super cute jeans. I am glad to say she uses both quite frequently. Livie's b-day is the 28th. LOL. She too got to go to delicious restaurants. I got her some cute hair clips, the bottle cap kind.
New Years:
We went to our cousins'. Our parents and theirs went to the Rays with some other people and have a party. So we hung out. The little kids were upstairs watching G-Force, or at least the boys were, while us older girls watched Julie and Julia. We snacked on eggnog, popcorn, apple cider, cupcakes, and chocolate-covered cream puffs. Mmmm. We allowed to let the little kids stay up till ten, which I guess is basically the new year in other parts of the country (ha, we lived in a different decade for two hours), but then sent them to bed. At midnight, we watched the real countdown. It was cool. But a lot of people kissed. We wondered if our parents were doing the same thing, and they said yes when we asked them later. We got to have a sleepover, and hung out playing games like Life till 3 am. Yes, we broke last new year's record by ten minutes. In the morning, we got to have donuts and scrambled eggs. We got to hand out even longer.
I love the holidays. I hate it when we have to take down the astonishing decorations, stop listening to the music, and not get to eat all the yummy stuff (such as my mom's homemade hot chocolate and whipped cream). Oh well, it's a reason to be excited for next year!
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