Yes, New Year's is over, but I still need to get caught up on Christmas posts before I can think of resolutions. (What does it say about me if I wait until the 2nd week of January to make resolutions?)
Our next Christmas was our private family celebration. But, first I thought I would mention something new and non-traditional.
For the first time in our marriage, Matt put up Christmas lights!
It was before Christmas, around the 10th of December, and it was abnormally warm. The year before I literally bought over 1000 lights for about $5 at an after Christmas clearance. So, since it was warm and there are already hooks in place on the house Matt put up a string of lights. It took about 10 minutes. Addie and I also wrapped another string around a tree trunk in about the same amount of time. It's not an impressive light show by any means (I didn't get a final photo), but it's something we can build on for next year.
Moving on...
My sister Amy and her family were visiting from Denver the entire week of Christmas. Monday and Tuesday they stayed with us, so we did a couple of fun things with them.
My sister Amy and her family were visiting from Denver the entire week of Christmas. Monday and Tuesday they stayed with us, so we did a couple of fun things with them.
Another first for us was a light show at a local mall. We didn't tell the kids what were were doing, but just that it was a "Christmas surprise".
It was a little different than what we were expecting. I believe Nathan's comment when we got there was, "Is this some sort of joke or something?". However, the kids all ended up having a good time.
It is basically a lighted castle with a bunch of trees, stars, hoops, etc. They go through a list of five songs, and the lights blink and change with the music. It's a fun atmosphere and the kids can dance around.
(The final song is, of course, Let It Go.)
(The final song is, of course, Let It Go.)
It was a bit like a junior high dance. At first everyone was self conscious, but after a song or two everyone was warmed up and dancing.
They're so cool.
The next morning the girls put on a play. It involved a lot of "Oh no the castle is messy." It ended with Addie saying, "Tah-dah I cleaned the castled." I was on the edge of my seat.
That afternoon, my sister and her family left for my dad's house. The kids and I did some last minute Christmas shopping, and then shucked our popcorn!
We planted popcorn in our garden last summer, and though I feel like we harvested five or six ears, we had 4 left.
After picking popcorn, you need to dry it out for three months. So, if you pick it in September it is ready just in time for Christmas...I'm hoping this can be a tradition that continues.
That night, December 23rd, we did our family Christmas. For the past several years we have made homemade pizza for dinner. This year we had Papa Murphy's. We like to have pizza and root beer and do our Christmas birthday party style.
We lighted our Christmas candle, and finished our Advent countdown.
We didn't want to leave our last envelopes for after Christmas, so we read 23, 24, and 25.
We didn't do any gifts this year (except a few smaller things in the kids' stockings). We don't usually buy much for our kids because they get a lot of gifts from grandparents, but this year we bought a new t.v. right before Thanksgiving, and told the kids that was our family Christmas gift. It was cute how even Nathan, who loves gifts, would remind us that they weren't getting gifts because we got a t.v. Even when they had small gifts in their stockings they were surprised, thinking it went against what we told them!
However, since it is Jesus' birthday, we like to get Him a gift. We try to teach our kids that what we do for the "least of these" we do for Christ. So, we can gift Him a birthday present by giving to someone in need. This has looked different in different years, and sometimes we've had the kids earn and contribute money. This year, they all got to pick out an item from the Gospel for Asia giving catalog. We didn't want to limit their generosity so we let them pick whatever they wanted. We knew that if they picked something expensive like a water buffalo or a well we would only be able to purchase a share, but we didn't tell them that. They all picked very practical things though...Nathan chose a mosquito net, Ella picked out a pair of rabbits, and Adeline chose Bibles. I'm not sure why we didn't have Evelyn pick out anything, we'll have to involve her next year!
After dinner clean-up, all the kids get on their pajamas and hop in the van for some Christmas light viewing. We've done this for three years now, so Matt is able to remember some of the more impressive neighborhoods (that are somewhat near us). We like to end with driving through the light display at Falls park.
Evelyn's gift to us was falling asleep on the drive home. So she went up to bed. The rest of us popped our popcorn and made some hot chocolate.
I surprised the kids with the Charlie Brown Christmas video, but when we opened it, the wrong disc was in the case. We tried watching part of it thinking the real Charlie Brown Christmas would be on it somewhere, but it was a fail.
Thankfully our new t.v. is a smart t.v. so we went on YouTube and found a clip from the movie. So, we just watched the best part at the end where Linus recites from Luke 2 then all the kids decorate the tree and sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
I then got a "nice" picture of the kids in front of the tree before heading off to bed.
It was an enjoyable night. I cherish these times when the kids are young and our family Christmas can remain simple.
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