Every year, we have three Christmas celebrations. One with our little family, and one with both sides of the family. This year, since we were going up to Washington for Christmas day (to celebrate with my side of the family), so we celebrated our Christmas Eve and day on the 12th and 13th of December (we even made a special appointment with Santa Claus to come early--it's nice that he's so flexible :) ).
Our Christmas Eve party with our family
We made a gingerbread house (a yearly tradition since I was small), a couple weeks before.
Our Gingerbread house. We read Christmas stories and watched classic Christmas movies and spent time together on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas morning, we ate a special breakfast, listened to Christmas music and opened presents together.
Mark, with Baby K and Little Man E: It is nice to be able to make our own traditions and celebrate with us, but also be able to celebrate with both sides of the family too. That is all very important to us.
Little Miss R and Little Man E
Mommy (Me) and baby K
Little Man E, opening presents.
Baby K, opening her stocking.
Our stockings (the color ones). I haven't decorated Baby K's yet (the green).
We also have a tradition in my family to act out the Nativity Scene about Jesus' birth. We always do it on my side of the family, but this was the first time we did it with our little family.
We all we in it, and did multiple parts each. We also sang Christmas carols together, while I played the piano and the violin on different songs.
We made Christmas dinner. It was delicious.
Then we went up to Washington to visit. We threw a big party for my Dad for his 60th birthday.
We made games surrounding my Dad (Wordsearch, BINGO, etc), a slideshow with pictures of his life, I interviewed him before the party on video for 3 hours about his life...
13 out of my parents 16 grandchildren, singing Grandpa a the party "I'm so Glad when {Grandpa} comes home", "Happy Happy Birthday {Grandpa} Dear" and "The Family is of God" (Primary Songs)
We had a potato bar for dinner, blueberry and apple pies for dessert... We played Beatles music in the background, and we played Beatles RockBand game (we all are huge Beatles fans because of my Dad).
Little Man E, Little Miss R and Baby K, asleep at my parent's house
We went to watch 6 of our nieces/nephews (Cousins K, N, K, L, and pictured: Cousins S and T), dance at their performance. It was so neat! They rocked it!
My parents had 2 trees, one artificial (for upstairs) and we went tree hunting with them for downstairs.
We celebrated Christmas eve at my parents with goodies and snacks.
Mark dressed up as Santa. Little Man E, with Daddy Claus.
Little Miss R, with Daddy Claus
Baby K, with Daddy Claus
Mommy kissing Santa Honey Claus (Mark!)
We celebrated Christmas day with my side of the family.
We ate Christmas dinner that evening, with my side of the family.
Baby K, with a Christmas present, from grandpa and grandma.
I got to visit with a lot of friends while I was up in Washington
I had dinner with my friend Julia and her fiance Hyrum.
1 of my bff's (since 2nd grade) Adrienne, her son M with Little Miss R and Little Man E
Angela and I also had dinner with our friend Gloria.
My brother Dan and wife Jolie, had their Baby C, on Christmas day.
Angela and I went to visit them in the hospital, the next day.
Nephew Baby C, is a darling little guy.
My brother Dan with his new son, C (my nephew).
My parent's 16th grandchild.
We did the Nativity scene with the Cheney cousins. Little Man E, played a wiseman.
Each child only had to do one part, because there are so many of us now. :) Little Miss R, played an angel.
Shepherds chillin' out. :) {nephew S, niece S, niece K}
After we got back, we had Christmas with Mark's side of the family (niece T)
I was thrilled to get a new sewing machine!
Little Man E, Little Miss R and niece/cousin G.
Little Miss R and Cousin G, playing.
Mommy (me) snuggling Baby K.
We had a very busy and nice Christmas season.
6 comments:
Wow, 16 grandkids. Sounds like a very special birthday for your dad. That's nice you guys are starting your own traditions too. I wanted to do that this year too since our family is more than just me and glen now. Your Brother that just had the baby looks so much like your dad.
Cute baby!
Wow! It looks like you had a wonderful Christmas! I love that Mark dressed up as Santa Claus. Did the kid the kids have a clue it was him? And I saw your Lily Photography blog and was blown away!!! They're all gorgeous, especially the ones with the babies on their parents' arms, and being hung in bundles. ADORABLE!!! You should make a calendar! And, I will be happy to offer tips if you ever re-upholster. I just figured it out, and am NO seamstress, believe me! So, you could make yours look better hands down, I'm sure.
Ingrid, my kids' knew Mark was dressing up as Santa, because we told them. Thanks for the compliments. :) I will definitely be asking you when it's time to re-upholster!
Cute pictures! I'm glad to see you guys had a good Christmas season and were able to celebrate with your cute family. That's nice to be able to have 3 separate celebrations to be with everybody. I always love your blog updates!
What fun - Christmastime is the best and I love all the traditions that you do as a family!
Thanks you guys!
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