Over the past several years we have created some family traditions at Christmas. Ever since I was pregnant with Connor we have stayed in Cedar Falls on Christmas Eve (because I was something like 10 1/2 months pregnant, or at least felt and looked like it). We begin our tradition by celebrating mass at 4:00 and arriving at church around 3:30 to get a seat! In the past, Ron has gone and reserved a small section of a pew at 3:15, but since there were two masses scheduled for 4:00 this year we thought we could push it back a little. While we found a seat, it was the last one in the very back of church! Guess we'll have to go at 3:15 again next year. This blog will be my reminder!
After mass it's time for an early supper of appetizers, cheeseburger soup, and beer bread. This year we even let the kids drink "kid wine", out of wine glasses no less.
After the dishes are cleared we build our gingerbread house. I had read the directions earlier in the day and they stated the house only needed to stand for 15 minutes before being decorated. Ummmm, not a good idea!
I attempted to use bowls to keep the house from collapsing. Didn't work one bit!
The candy kept falling through the roof lines, almost as if it was being sucked in by a sugar craving monster!
And...it crashed!
Finally, it's present time. We only open the exchange gifts on Christmas Eve and of course the yearly pajamas. The kids had eagerly hit the stores shopping for the perfect gift for their brother. Sometimes I think they actually pick out toys they secretly want!
We can't forget to leave some treats for Santa and his reindeer! This year he got cookie dough truffles (aka the only sweet treat I made this year due to back surgery) and some carrots. I don't have a picture of it, but the boys hurried outside in their new jammies and sprinkled reindeer food in the freshly fallen snow too!
Christmas morning is by far the most exciting time at our house. When the boys spring out of the bedrooms, wide eyed and bushy tailed, they find a mountain of gifts from Santa, all labeled with names, to rip into. We try to have some sort of organization to this adrenaline rush, such as youngest to oldest, but it usually turns into a mad dash of opening presents and is quickly finished in a matter of minutes!
Owen (my only clothed child) had so much fun opening presents and he was especially enamored with his Pillow Pet!
Connor received a much needed orange tractor to add to his enormous collection of farm equipment, Paper Jamz, TC stuff, a UNI football helmet and some rockin' football pads!
Some of Mason's highlights...Gatorade water bottle, Under Armour sweatshirt, Balance bracelet, Twister Hoopla, and more!
We always have a nice Christmas morning breakfast of egg casserole and cinnamon rolls. I was going to try to change the tradition to plain eggs this year since I didn't get the idea the boys even liked egg casserole...might have something to do with turned up noses, "oooh, yuk", "what are the green things in here", pushing the food around the plate, you know what I mean. But, Mason was insistent on having the egg casserole. He did question why I was taking pictures of all of the food though and I kindly explained we wanted memories for years to come. He bought it!
Since I didn't spend enough time in the kitchen preparing for Christmas Eve and Christmas brunch, we needed to have a special Christmas dinner as well! I must have put the camera down by this time because there aren't any pictures, but by the end of the day we were all exhausted from eating, playing with new toys, chillin' out, and enjoying the day! Christmas 2010 turned out to be a great holiday as always!
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