Christmas 2008: the recap

Christmas Eve

We decided to go to the earliest service at church (3:00!!) because last year we went at 4:30 and it was so packed that we barely got a space for Rachel in the nursery and we barely got a seat (had to sit in the second or third row, squished together). They were asking people with flexible schedules to go to the earlier one, but apparently, everyone else had flexible schedules too, because EVERYONE was at our service. We got there early enough that we got Rachel a nursery spot and we got some seats, but by the end it was packed to the gills. My friend, Emily, said they had to stand! It was strange to walk out of a candlelight service and have it still be light outside. I didn't like that part. Oh, and the rain. I didn't like that either. It's not supposed to rain on Christmas Eve. But it did. All day. Here's Rachel before we went, all dressed up.


We came home and made our annual Christmas dinner. We always make something special. Last year it was scallops. This year we made king crab legs. They were great, and I've never heard my husband go on so about a home cooked meal. I wish he was always so complimentary! Even Rachel ate (and liked!) some crab.

After dinner we had Rachel decorate her own little Christmas tree, which we decided to call our Santa Tree, the place where Santa would place his gifts, to keep them separate from the gifts from Mommy and Daddy. She had a great time decorating it. We got milk and a snack ready for Santa (we didn't have any cookies, so we left him graham crackers and a piece of fudge--he still ate them and said he enjoyed them in the note he left!) and carrots for the reindeer.

She opened her one present on Christmas eve (PJs--a tradition left over from my childhood) and Daddy read her "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and the Bible Christmas story before bed, also a tradition we started (he even read them to her on her first Christmas eve, when she was only 8 months old--hopefully she'll enjoy them even more with each coming year).


After she went to bed, Santa's Elves got to work and then we watched "A Christmas Story" (on for 24 hours on TBS--we just watched it once!).


Christmas Morning

Rachel woke us up talking around 5:50. This is becoming a trend lately that we don't like. Usually if she's awake before 6, I go in and tell her that it's still nigh-night time, and she needs to go back to sleep. But since we knew we needed to get going, we decided not to do that. We let her talk awhile, while my husband took and shower and got ready to go downstairs to turn the lights on and the video camera ready. Meanwhile, I went into her room and said, "Merry Christmas! It's Christmas morning!" In the last week or so since the presents had been wrapped, she'd ask to open them and we'd say, "Not 'till Christmas morning!" So when I told her, "It's Christmas morning!" she immediately said, "Open 'em? Open 'em?" She knew immediately what we were going to do that morning.

Once Daddy was ready she and I went downstairs. The first thing she saw was the train table. "Ohhhhhh......trains!" she said, as she ran over to the table. She discovered the sounds it made as she moved the trains around the track. We let her play with it for quite awhile, but then tried to get her to come open the gifts and stocking Santa had left under her little tree. It took a lot of coercing to get her to stop what she was doing--and this continued the whole morning. Everything she opened, she was soooo excited about and wanted to play with. She'd play with it awhile, go back to something else she had already opened, and finally we'd get her to come over and open something else.

Some of her favorite things she opened were the tutu I made her (which she put on over her PJs and then later with her new cowboy hat and bandanna!), chalk for her easel, and the Tinkerbell video (which we bought to go with her portable DVD player she also opened--more a present for us than for her, though, since it means she'll be quiet on long trips from now on!!!). But really, she loved every single thing--even the outfit she opened, which most kids wouldn't be too excited about. She wanted to put it on right away. It was just so fun to see her so excited and enjoying everything so much.


She kept going back to the train table, though. I thought this was so funny--her PJs, tutu, cowboy bandanna, and playing with her trains..... This is how she spent most of the morning.

There was a leotard to go with the tutu. After awhile I finally put it on her. She loved it, but kept saying, "Mommy, where's my pants?"My husband and I exchanged several gifts, too. He had asked for an iPod classic, and I was determined to get it for him, but that meant I couldn't get him much else. But I wanted there to be more presents under the tree, so I wrote a bunch of little poems and wrapped them up in boxes. The first one said something about his gifts being under the tree, "but ten push ups you first must do before you get gift number two." Each box had some task he had to complete, like jumping jacks, running up and down the stairs, and things like that. So after he opened the first five poem gifts, gift number six was his iPod. He spent most of the rest of the morning transferring his music over to it. And if you know him, you know just how much music that is! But there's still over half the memory left, so he has lots more room.

He surprised me on a few things (namely a card table, which I really thought was a painting for the wall when I saw it all wrapped up!). I got the new lamps I wanted for our family room, a microwave, which we desperately needed, since ours is on its last leg, a necklace, some gift cards to some of my favorite places, and a few other things.

This is the marble run Daddy made for Rachel. She loves it, especially the marbles. She sat at breakfast that morning and just watched them speed down the track over and over.

After the presents were all opened, we had to get everything packed and ready to go by 11:00 so we could be at my parents' house by 2:00. Rachel watched some of her Tinkerbell movie on the drive up, but she fell asleep after about 40 minutes and slept almost the rest of the way. We were really glad, since last year she didn't sleep on the ride and it resulted in a way too wound-up/overly tired little girl come evening.


Christmas Afternoon

When we arrived at my parents' house Rachel's cousins were there, and anxious to open more presents. My younger brother, Jack, and his wife, Megan, weren't there yet, but my mom decided to go ahead and have the kids open their presents. It actually worked out really well this way, because we all weren't trying to open our own presents at the same time, so the parents and grandparents could concentrate on watching the kids open their presents and help them get them out of the package so they could play with each one (those awful twist ties and plastic wrap are SO annoying!!!). Since her cousins are older and more experienced, they whipped through their presents pretty quickly, while Rachel wanted to stop and play with each one, so her present opening lasted a lot longer. Some of her favorites were her Little People princess castle and coach, Leo's baton (from The Little Einsteins--here she is conducting), and some Thomas trains: Rosie, Lady, and the musical caboose.

She loved pretending she was "Dr. Rachel" with her new doctor's kit. Here she is giving Grandpa a checkup (looking in his ears and giving him a shot).

Grandma wanted a picture with all of the grandkids. Trying to get four children to sit still, smile, and look at the camera at the same time is nearly impossible. Alex wouldn't get in the picture at first, and then even after he did, he was sad.

We also took a group photo later in the day. My brother, Ted, gave us all picture frames covered in slate from the house where we all grew up (the house has since been destroyed by a fire, which is devastating to all of us, but when he went once to walk around and look at the property, he found the slate from what was once our front hall), and he wanted us to get a family picture to put in it. He got the best one, which I'll try to put on here on another post.

My mom then gave us all our presents--we each got a huge box and she told us to open them at the same time. Inside were all of our gifts, so we only had one to unwrap! My brother said, "It's like a goodie bag of all the things I like!"

The rest of the day was spent playing with toys, talking, eating, laughing, and having a good time together as a family. Rachel was as good as gold the whole time and just had the best time playing with her cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. It was a great day.

The Day After Christmas

The next day we got up and went to celebrate with my husband's family. Rachel had a good time playing with her cousins (especially with Ashley's tent, which was a big Tinkerbell tent that went over her bed) and Granny and Papa. There she opened a present that was more than twice her size! Her uncle wanted to know who was getting the coffin for Christmas.... Can you tell what it is?

If you guessed a sled, you're right! It's the biggest sled I've ever seen! When she told me on the phone before Christmas that we could all three fit on it, she wasn't kidding!

After lunch Rachel and Ashley took a nap and the adults were able to play a game, which was fun. We spent the rest of afternoon with them and then headed back to my parents' house, where my aunt, uncle, and cousins had arrived. It's always fun to see them, and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other. We all stayed up late playing a game, which was full of laughs.

It was a great weekend, full of lots of food and fun with family. I'm sad it's over, after looking forward to it for so long, but it'll make it all the more exciting when it comes along next year.