It's going to be hard to "wrap-up" Christmas, but here goes...
Christmas Eve dinner at the Phelps'. I was lazy and didn't take any pictures. We had ham, turkey, sour cream potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, salad, and pie for dessert. (I bought store-bought pies after a multitude of barriers to actually making a dessert.) We handed out Sugar-N-Spice Nuts and Kellen gave out a Fruit by the Foot to each of his cousins. Then we headed home to open one present from under the tree. The kids each got a new Christmas movie and then they stayed up until about 10:30 or so watching "A Very Monkey Holiday" which was Kincade's Curious George movie.
We stayed up late while Jared replaced all of the batteries in the old toys and I had good intentions of finishing the last of the fleece blankets - Bridger's Scooby-Doo blanket wasn't done yet, but Kellen's SpiderMan and Kincade's Curious George were done. I could not find the Scooby-Doo fabric that I thought I had bought. So I just resigned myself to the fact that I'm getting spacey and I never bought it. So, Bridger didn't get his blanket (I'm hoping this doesn't send him to years of expensive therapy when he is older. Bridger, it doesn't mean we don't love you!). Jared NEVER believed that I would do something like think I had bought that fabric and then get confused and not have bought it (those verbs are hard!). Sure enough, Jared was right again. He found the Scooby-Doo fabric in his tool cabinet on Sunday. Good thing because when I went on Saturday, Joann Fabrics was out of it. So, I still have a belated Christmas present to make my poor neglected middle child. I think we ended up getting to bed about 2:00 am or so.
Christmas morning, Kincade woke up about 8, Kellen at 8:15, and we finally woke Bridger up at 8:30. Why do kids always sleep in on the mornings we actually NEED them to be awake??? Great unfairness in parenting. Anyways, the kids were excited about the basketball hoop, train table, and not as excited about the shopping cart. Can't win 'em all I guess. Kellen also got his Dragon Fortress and spy kit that he had been asking for. Kincade got a cash register and some more pretend food. Bridger got a SpiderMan punching bag (broke on Christmas day). They all got push cars and pretend guns. Kincade loved his, just like I knew he would. He kept insisting that I hold one of the other guns and we shoot each other. Boys... Jared got a table saw and 4 speakers for the family room and some books and DVDs. I got the Amazon kindle with 1 book loaded onto it and a cover. I also got a cupcake book and a popcorn popper. We all had a great Christmas!
My two favorite traditions of all of the holiday season are both on Christmas day. The first one is the Christmas Breakfast in Pajamas at the Phillips'. We all show up in our pajamas and eat breakfast and open family presents. My mom doesn't know how to do anything small, so she does it big. There was blueberry baked French toast, 3 kinds of egg stratas, sweet breads, rolled cinnamon toast, juices, bacon, sausage, hot chocolate, and we provided the smoked ham (from Jared's brother Kent). Then we moved on to opening up presents. My mom had a soft present for each of us, plus another present. She explained the soft presents as we opened them. What had started as a gift of 7 blankets (she never made baby blankets for Shannon's stepkids...), ended up totalling to 25 blankets. Like I said, she doesn't know how to do anything small! All of the couples got a family blanket, and the kids each got their own little cozy blanket. She told how she had made 2 blankets for my kids and then decided that since I call them "my monkeys," she needed to make them monkey-themed blankets, so she made 3 different monkey blankets. They're so cute! Our family quilt is so comfortable. Because of changing her mind and different events, she had about 6 extra, which she allowed the kids to trade if they wanted. I think 3 of the girls ended up trading around. Then all of us adults also got a set of toaster oven pans, which will come in handy! Shannon and Dustin also got a framed print of the San Diego temple, with the date of their sealing and their names. Then the kids and dads settled in to play Family Feud on the Wii and Jared and Shannon played Christmas music (piano and violin) until we all had to get on with Christmas Day! Why does the day fly by so fast? You prepare and prepare and then it's gone before you blink.
We ran home for a quick regroup, and then on to the other favorite tradition - Christmas Chimichangas at the Phelps'. Jared's mom is just as crazy as mine! She serves chimichangas to 50+ people for all of Christmas afternoon (Sorry, just immediate family ;). There's homemade enchilada sauce, lots of toppings, and beef and bean chimis, and of course lots of fun! Mom and Dad Phelps bought each family a "coaster car." They are these little cars that you just have to turn the steering wheel to make the car go. We had races in the driveway for what seemed like hours. Eventually everyone drifted back home, except for three families. Those of us remaining had leftover pie and made some hot cocoa. That really hit the spot! We finally headed for home long after the sun had gone down. The boys were tired, but if memory serves, they still talked Jared into reading their short Christmas books they got in their stockings.
(It's not lost on Jared that my two favorite traditions revolve around food...)
The day after Christmas was another busy day. I headed out to do some after-Christmas shopping. I bought a bunch of stuff 50% off like garland for my new stair rail and some adorable peppermint lights and plenty of wrapping paper. Jared worked most of the day on putting the table saw together and watching the kids (two tasks that go great together...).
Mom and Dad Phelps came by for their annual visit to see the kids' Christmas goodies. Unfortunately, Bridger was not in the picture because we don't love him as much...haha just kidding. He was so cranky, Jared told him he had to stay in his room until he could be happy, and lo and behold, he fell asleep. A nap that was sorely needed!
The day after Christmas was also the Annual Friends' Party. These are all of Jared's high school friends, although I was acquainted with most of them too. We've settled on the day after Christmas so we can catch those who come INTO town. Unfortunately, we miss those who go OUT of town. Darn it, we just can't win. I was lazy once again (this is turning into a theme...) and didn't take any pictures. In any event, we had soup, rolls, and dessert. My soup was a total flop, but that's ok....I guess. We held it at a church so the kids could run around and we could enjoy ourselves. The kids sure enjoyed that stage!
Sunday night we headed over to the Phillips' for a typical Sunday night dinner. Luckily my mom had leftover turkey meat (NO! not from Thanksgiving, that's disgusting! She cooked a turkey on Christmas Day "just in case") so she made "Creamed Turkey over Toast" which my brother always calls a different name which cannot be posted on a family blog. After hunting down some eggs (we finally found some at Melody's house - yay for chickens!), my mom set to making sugar cookies - mainly for me. Big surprise, my next favorite tradition is Christmas Sugar Cookies. And she doesn't do anything small, so she doubled the batch and we probably ended up with 100 or so Christmas cookies. You won't hear me complaining!
*Whew* Long post. If you're still reading...congratultions! Did I mention my kids were perfect all December-long? haha, that's because they weren't. There were plenty of melt-downs, non-sharing, fighting, saying "no" and everything else that comes with this lovely holiday season. But I choose to pretend they didn't happen at all! Hope everyone had a great season! We just need to get through New Year's and we'll be home free for 2010!
