Christmas Morning

We celebrated Christmas a few times, like we usually do. Our small family Christmas is usually a day or two before the real one, even though ours feels like the real one. ;) The kids didn't wake up until 8:00 am so that was nice. They all clambered onto our bed and begged to go see the gifts Santa had left. 

   

 

The kids discovered new suitcases and a picture of the Disney Cruise inside of it.... and a special booklet about their trip. I think we were pretty obvious about it all, er, I mean Santa was... but only June really seemed to grasp what was going on. She was flabbergasted at her siblings, who were more interested in the cotton candy and the rolling suit case. 

 

Because of Winter's school situation right now, she is unable to go with us on the cruise. 😞 But to make up for this sadness, Santa got her laser hair removal for her legs, which is one of her dreams. So she was very excited.

Then we opened our other gifts. And maybe one day I'll tell you all about how brilliant and resourceful I was, but just know that that I managed to give the kids all some fun gifts, even though Santa drained our budget. ;)

I had this fun idea to take photos of the kids with their new gifts but as I put together this blog post, I realized that I totally forgot after I got a photo of Johnny and Rose. 😅 But whatever, here are those two photos. 

We had a great morning and day. Then we packed up and left for Boise the next morning, on the real Christmas Eve. :) 

Christmas Eve

 For our family Christmas Eve I wanted to make a special dinner and went with a white, peaceful theme. We had pasta, salad, and bread sticks.  Winta was with us and Haben, Yonatan and Alonab. And Buck's parents were able to come as well!

Then the kids all got Christmas pajamas!

 

Since Haben and Yonatan were not able to stay the night, we had them pen their presents that evening.

And apparently I just took photos of Alonab the rest of the evening. ;)

 

We watched a special movie of the nativity and the missionaries ended up knocking on the door and wondered if they could share a special message about Jesus so we let them in and had them do that. It was a nice way to focus on the Savior and they asked the kids good questions too. 

And of course we ended the night, prepared for Santa.

 

And yes, we cheat and do Christmas early in our home. That way we are able to have our own thing together but still be there with either Buck's family or mine on actual Christmas day. It's worked out well the past several years!