Oh What Fun....Traditions

Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh... well we didn't have a horse or a sleigh but we had snowboards and sleds. Christmas Eve day we went to my brothers apartment up at Wolf Mountains in Eden. We had lunch and half of the kids went out to snowboard or sled down the hills. The heard the snow was more like ice not real ideal for sledding, but they still had fun. My brother, his girlfriend Colleen and I played Skip-bo and California Speed. We later opened gifts and finally said our good-byes. The kids were anxious to start our Christmas traditions.

We got home, heated up the white bean chili I had made earlier and had dinner. After the kitchen was cleaned up for the night. We allow them to open their Christmas PJ's in order of age, youngest to oldest, but in order to open them, they have to choose a Christmas song or Christmas hymn for all of us to sing. When the song finishes they open up their gift and run to put it on as we are all singing the next child's song. I like it because the kids usually keep to the hymns. When we were all done getting dressed and the mess is cleaned up, I read the The Living Christ, it's our newest tradition. I have Ron read Luke II in the scriptures and we even ventured to 3rd Nephi to hear what Samuel the Lamanite had to say about the birth of Christ, very nice. We all reverently go downstairs to our movie room and watch Mr. Krueger's Christmas and then Luke II -the Nativity on the same DVD. Then we say our family prayers with each of us taking our turn to pray. I allowed the kids to watch one final movie before we go to bed because it was still early. We watched our new movie that my brother got us The Sorcerer's Apprentice. They went to bed, but we didn't, Ron drove to his parents house to pick up our large gift items and I was preparing the stockings in my room. My son Brandon chose to be an elf this year and so he helped me and then helped set up when the time was right. It was a lot of fun, we finally went to bed around 1:30am. It was a very Merry Christmas. We loved our day. My other tradition is to serve Rhodes cinnamon and orange rolls for breakfast. I make my kids  wait until 9:00am to open our other gift of clothes. We each picked out an outfit we wanted, even I and Ron got something new. Ron wasn't expecting it but thanks to Cameron who also earns money in our house, we were able to surprise him. I make the kids wait until 10:00am to open all of the other gifts around the tree. The last tradition I do is make a big Christmas dinner where I can use my Wal-Mart china dishes. We actually set the table and sit around our long table.  My kids look forward to the dinner, they like it big and I don't mind cooking it. We had turkey, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, corn, snap pea salad, cranberry sauce, red jello, and rolls. We all got to celebrate with Sparkling Grape Cider and a few other flavors in our nice glasses. For dessert, my girls begged me to make peanut butter pie, Cameron loves pumpkin pie and I love Banana Cream pie and I made a sugar-free apple crisp for Ron. It was a great day with all our traditions. Everyone was happy with what they got for Christmas. Happy Birthday Jesus, we love you.