Christmas Eve/Christmas 2008!
Our Christmas Eve and Christmas were fantastic again this year! We always start Christmas Eve by going out to breakfast at IHOP. We were in an out in less than an hour so it couldn’t have gone smoother! We then headed back home where Blake and the 3 older kids got ready to go enjoy our immense amount of snow by doing some sledding. This gave me some much needed time to do a little cooking and finish up some Christmas surprises. After a yummy, warm lunch of soup and bread bowls we started into our Christmas Eve present tradition which has the kids opening their gifts to each other and their new PJ’s. We also let them open up a family gift of Hyper Dash/Hyper Jump which gave us a little exercise. (emphasis on little) We then headed down to my brother and his wife’s home who we have spent 7 of our 9 Christmas Eves with. We always bring one salty and one sweet treat to share with everyone and after much eating, we do the annual Nativity Production. Chloe played Mary, Chase was Joseph, Parker was a camel for the wisemen and Lyla was the honored baby Jesus. The kids changed into their new jammies there and upon our arrival home we read “The Night Before Christmas” and put out cookies for Santa and oatmeal for the reindeer. The kids, of course, went RIGHT to bed (if only we could use Santa as an incentive every night!).
Christmas morning was filled with Santa, present opening and playing, playing, playing. Grandma and Grandpa Lewis joined us for our Christmas lunch, thank heavens they made it in the snow! I told Blake that morning that all I wanted for Christmas was a BIG, LONG NAP and I actually got it! The evening was filled with watching a movie together and eating Christmas treats. All in all, the two days were great and made for a lot of wonderful memories!