Christmas Fun!

This will be a long post, beware!

On Christmas eve, I got up early and got baking pies. I had to provide 5 pies to church, as they were going to be serving them to a group of homeless guys that frequent our church on Saturday mornings for health screenings, breakfast, and socializing. Other people from the Missions Team were going to provide other parts of the meal so they would have a complete Christmas dinner.

We ended up with a pecan, oatmeal, ginger-pumpkin, sour cherry, and Flathead cherry:

Mom, Dad, and Karie came over around 10 am or so. Kids were excited to see Macy and Papa (it looks like Papa is reading "Spooky Sounds", page 159!, see below):

We spent the remainder of the afternoon just playing with kids, and finishing getting ready for Christmas dinner.

That evening we got all dressed up and went to church. Pictures taken before church are on Jason's fancy-pants camera. He will have to put them up here at another time.

Here we are opening one gift after we got home from church - that's my family's tradition. The rest have to wait until the morning! They were so giddy about this. Reder got a cool Lego book, and Ruby got a cool coloring book and some reading books from my good friend Andrea and her girls:

Then the kids got to put on their Christmas jammies I made for them. I didn't do the best job, but in all honestly, I was really pressed for time towards the end. Kids liked them anyway. They got to choose their own fabric, of course.

Say "CHEESE", Ruby!:

Reder's jammies are made of Christmas light fabric. He chose the blue for the center of his shirt too:

We ate pizza out in the family room for dinner (we had a "pizza picnic", as Ruby calls it - we do this every time we have pizza). They even got to have a Coke (okay, a 7UP):

We also went on a walk that evening, which was great. It's nice to go outside during times that you don't normally go outside, like right before bedtime. Surprisingly we had an easy time getting kids to bed despite their excitement.

Reder got up extra early the next morning (ahem, thanks Papa) and was excited to see what Santa brought - a kitchen, a cash register, and a Thomas bridge that Reder has been begging for:

Reder got a Lego man headlamp in his stocking. The LEDs are in his feet, so you can bend his legs and aim it. Is this so you can play Lego's in bed when your mom thinks you are sleeping? Santa is perplexed as to why he did not bring one of these for Ruby as well but at the time he was not thinking clearly - too many cookies.

Notice Ruby is investigating the kitchen, and Reder is holding up Ruby's new undies. In fact, Santa brought all of us new undies. I think Santa was curious what Reder would think if Santa did that. Reder thought it was silly, which was what Santa was going for:

Reder got a checkers game from Briar..... thanks Briar! Somehow I missed this entire part. Maybe I was getting breakfast out?:

Ruby forgot how much she loves Macy. She took any chance she got to "cuggle" her:

Karie got the kids the coveted marble kit. After Santa got all of the kids' gifts together earlier in the month, Reder insisted he wanted a marble set just like Wally's, and wouldn't stop talking about it most of the month. Santa was beginning to worry! But, Karie was excited that she got to give the "cool" gift. When Reder ripped this one open he exclaimed "THIS IS JUST WHAT I WANTED!!":

Ruby in the first new outfit of the day:

But then we opened this adorable pink dress, also from GG, and we had to change our clothes:

Here Reder is saying "I love Dominoes!" This was from Aunt Mary, Uncle Dick, and Great Gramma Finney. He has talked us into playing it several times since getting it:

Nice buns, Gramma!

For Christmas dinner we had our good friends the Kay's over, as well as our former student Wany and his friend Andy. I was wondering what these guys would think of American Christmas food but they ate well. It probably helped that they are starving, in a sense, since it is difficult for them to feed themselves while food service is closed, as they don't have a frig, etc.

I must say that this was one of the most memorable holiday meals. Everything turned out just wonderful. We were stuffed to the gills.

One of Ruby's favorite gifts was a fairy costume from Wally, complete with wings. She loves it. Lately she insists that it stays on the end of her bed while she's sleeping so she can put the wings on as soon as she gets up:

Reder got a book of Cars stories from Santa. There is a story in it called "The Spooky Sound". Ruby is obsessed with it to say the least - why she latched on to this one I have no idea. All of Christmas eve, Christmas day, and the day after, she followed us around and would say "Mommy, your turn to read Spooky Sounds!". Here it was Karie's turn!:

All in all we had a great Christmas. In all of the chaos it is easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas - it takes some frequent mental effort to try to make it the centerpiece of the occasion. I tried my hardest to remind the kids what we were really celebrating. I usually wonder if what we try to teach our kids sticks with them, and I'm never really sure, but today Reder asked me when Sunday was b/c he wanted to go to Sunday School. I think more things stick than we are aware of.

Now it is time for the New Year....I'm not sure it's so "happy", as I always think this time of year is difficult. It's cold, dark, snowy, and drastically low-key as compared to the prior month. It takes some adjustment, that's for sure. Reder is ready for school to start again, and I'm ready for some of my other responsibilities to pick up too. Here's to a great 2011!