Our Christmas

Merry Christmas! 

         

The girls woke up at a reasonable time today.  They found a note and some crumbs that Santa left behind. 

Then, they were ready to do the gift thing!  But… we held them off with breakfast – eggs and potatoes. 

Finally, it was time.  They said good-bye to all their Advent calendars – the toilet paper Chrsitmas trees they filled with candy for each other, and the official Advent calendar they opened each morning for the activity.  After this, they did stockings.

They opened gifts right after – karaoke machine, sewing machine, balls, p.j.s with matching doll p.j.s, and some other little stuff. 

    

Jeremy continued his tradition of giving me jewelry from World Crafts.  He did a good job picking out a necklace and earrings!  Jeremy gifted me a weekend away this winter with him.  We hope the snow continues, and we can take advantage of it on the slopes.  We gave the girls a weekend trip to Columbus as well.  Last year, we went because Madison had go to the mall on her Christmas list.  It was a lot of fun, so hopefully, we will find a good time to do that.

The rest of the day was a loss for me.  I went to bed right after lunch and slept and slept.  Jeremy took the girls over to his mom’s to hang out with her, Jen, and Arturo.  They came back to grab the crockpot supper I had started that morning.  I stayed home and laid on the couch. 

They all seemed to have a great Christmas day.  For that I am thankful.  I would rather be the one sick than one of the girls.  A) I’ll get over missing some things. B) If one of them is sick, then an adult has to stay back too.  I went to the doctor today – no flu, no strep… just a virus that comes with a super sore throat, aches, chills, fatigue, and a low grade fever.  Madison was done with her virus in about 3 days; here’s hoping mine is short-lived, too.  (I am at least awake and blogging, instead of chained to my bed with no energy.)

Ediger Christmas

We started our fun on Friday night this year.  We had pizza, sides, and fun.  Not a lot necessarily happened, but it was a good kick-off.  We brought Megan home for a sleepover with us.  The excitement was hindered only by Madison having a fever Friday night.  She ended up sleeping in her own room; Ellie and Megan slept in the living room.  (Madison ended up going to Christmas day on Saturday because everyone figured we were all exposed anyway.  Lucky for her; it would have been hard to miss it.)

I snuck out of the bedroom to start the egg casserole baking, chop some apples, and finish some present preparations.  It was hard to do with the two little girls sleeping in the living room.  I managed to get most of it done. 

We headed over to my parents’ house about 8:30 for breakfast – egg casserole, yogurt parfaits, baked oatmeal, apple coffee cake, and English muffin toast with homemade freezer jam.  It was delicious. 

As people waited for the food to get all set out and cleaned up, we captured a few random, candid pictures:

            

Then, we took some family pictures.  I realized as I was looking at pictures, that we missed taking pictures of the grandkids with the grandparents.  Bummer.

        

We read the Christmas story, shared thoughts and memories, and had a prayer to begin Christmas gift giving. 

I have again realized it doesn’t matter how many or what kind of gifts are given at Christmas, it is the joy of being together.  I have also realized the joy of little ones opening presents is pretty exciting to watch.  They just can’t hold in their excitement!

                      

Some kids learned that even money can be exciting.  It opens all kinds of possibilities.  Nate explaining this to Paxon. And Paxon getting his own taste of cold, hard cash!

          

We gifted my parents with t-shirts for the upcoming Gatlinburg trip and a gratitude book where everyone had written some thoughts for them to read.  We also gave them some snow gear, random kitchen tools, and a few other things. 

    

We had one of those candy-in-Saran-wrap balls for the kids to try to unravel.  It was a challenge to say the least.  I think after they got over their frustrations, they had a lot of fun!

    

Somewhere in the day we had a big ole lunch – pulled pork, cheesy potatoes, cole slaw, bread, jello, and special sparkling punch.  The entertainment factor of opening the bottles of sparkling juice is pretty high.  We even watched as Nate popped one cork into the outstretched bag held by Ben and Luke.

We were able to get the kids (and adults) out of the house for some recreation this year.  I am not sure who enjoyed it more – the kids or adults!  We played multiple games of basketball.  We all came out mostly unscathed. 

            

A few more candids from the day:

       

Overall, it was a good time, and we realized again how blessed we are to have a family that can play and pray together.