Christmas Wrap-up

Before they become totally outdated, I've got to share just a few pics of our holiday celebrations.  We do keep the  gift-giving to a minimum around here, so we've never done the open-a-gift-the-night-before thing.  This year, however, we had to.  We like to keep 'em guessing, and we wanted them to wear these Christmas morning.

The only child we actually had pj's on the list for was the Mayor,
but then we found the purple ones (peace signs) for the Girl and the ball started rolling! The clincher was the penguin feet on the Sleeping Giant.  As we came around the corner in the women's section of Target, we were lamenting that they probably didn't carry women-sized feety Pj's- after all, this girl is taller than me, and I am not short!
Not only do they carry them, they put baby penguins on the feet!  Score!  The Little Princess has frogs, which seemed appropriate.  The only trouble is, if you pick her up while she's wearing these, *zap*!

As she watched her sister and brother open their jammies, she picked up on the trend...everyone seems to be getting feety pajamas...she asked, "You didn't find these in my size, did you?"  She was very eager to open her package. 
She even posed willingly for these pictures, even though she hates to be blogged!






That was Christmas Eve after church.  I didn't take photos of Christmas morning at home, because I want to join in the celebration, not be behind a camera!  We open our gifts in our bedroom, having stuffed them all under the bed.  This tradition started because we have never had a Christmas tree.  Even when we are at Grandma and Grandpas on Christmas morning, we want to have our own family time.  So, we crammed them under the bed to hide them.  This year, there were also lights strung around the bed on the floor, as well as the ever-present tweeting Christmas irritant.  That's how he wakes up the kids.  In how many families does the Dad wake the kids up on Christmas morning?  I think this is a good sign that we've kept them from getting too greedy in the season!

We had plenty of time after our small gift exchange to start the Cinnamon rolls- Clone of a Cinnabon!  When those were ready (and the house smelled oh so good!) we brought them to my parents' house for Christmas with Nana, Woody and their cousins. 

I am happy to see that my nieces are wearing their new pink boots that I found for them.  It's becoming a tradition for me to get them some kind of fun boots to wear, something that their mother wouldn't buy.  I usually get something dressier but these, I think, were a hit!  The Mayor is looking a bit surly in this picture; but hey, it's really hard to get a shot of 7 kids all looking at the camera and being cute at the same time!  This was the best one!  Maybe he got up too early that morning!

After brunch with these folks, our next stop was Grandma and Grandpas.  Usually, we're at their house in the morning because we're staying with them from out of town.  This year, we live at their house but they don't!  They have a parsonage because Grandpa just became a pastor, so this was their first Christmas in a new house.  My camera never made it out of my purse at this location- I left that up to others.

 Here are shots of our candy houses we built at church a few weeks ago.

All manner of candy and cereal is provided for decorating these houses, lovingly cut out of cardboard and assembled by volunteers in advance.
The one below belonged to a friend.

One day I was left home alone for a few hours and got inspired, so I built this gingerbread log cabin. 
Way easier, I imagine, than trying to get planks to stay together.  My kids were impressed by it- they didn't even try to eat it, so it was a decoration on the hutch for a few weeks.  Now it is outside to see if the critters find it appetizing. 
There was also a lot of gingerbread and sugar cookie decorating, an annual tradition.  We baked loads of cookies, many kinds, even though we had no plans to host any events, so on Christmas Eve the Sleeping Giant and the Little Princess went to some of the neighbors' houses and delivered some as gifts.  We haven't really gotten to know any neighbors since we've only been here since October.  This made a nice ice breaker, except that some people slammed the door in their faces- I guess they thought they were trying to sell the cookies.   Good practice for life overseas I guess, since some of our neighbors there will undoubtedly think we are up to no good, as well. 

Happy New Year to All!  I have some thoughts about what I hope the new year will bring, which I home to share with you soon.