Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas Eve '08

Christmas Eve

If we couldn't be with our family, at least we could be with the Lewis' who are like family to us. Thank goodness they have a baby coming any day now so they couldn't leave town. :)

The girls got all festive before the party began...We ate Italian at Jillie's request- Angela's delicious lasagna and my homemade spaghetti. Jillie got her orthodontic expander out on Christmas Eve morning. We thought she would be getting braces on that morning too, but a Christmas miracle happened. :) He decided he didn't have time to do the braces and made her a retainer to hold everything in place til Jan 22 when she will start braces. So yea! She gets to eat again! We are relieved.
(Kobe, Blake, Reagan, Jillie, Connor, Jackson)
(Angela w/ 'Baby L', Cole, Dave, Greg)
After dinner Jillie lead the kids in some activities. I didn't want the kids to just play as usual, but to have some special Christmas activities. I planned 25 activities and used our countdown calendar to hold each one. As it turned out we rushed through some and skipped others (like a bunch of Christmas stories we were to read in between other activities) since we got a late start.
We played Christmas charades...
Wrote thank you cards to Santa...
Made reindeer food...
Played Pin the Nose on the Snowman...
A game of Holiday Bingo that I made years ago for a class party...
We also did a Christmas tree pinata, played "Santa Says", guessed how many candies were in the jar, sang Christmas songs, gave our best "Ho!Ho!Ho!", told what we wanted most for Christmas, and put the Baby Jesus in the manger.
The adults enjoyed watching some of A Christmas Story.
Then it was present time! Gifts for the kids including their Christmas Eve jammies.
I asked the girls to perform for us a Christmas Medley that Jillie composed earlier this month. It is so good I think and they do a great job! Take a look...


Their performance inspired the boys- to the surprise and SHOCK of the parents- to perform their own song.

Our party went well into the night, until the kids saw on emailsanta.com that Santa had reached the East Coast of the US. That encouraged everyone to get to bed. Our kids were finally asleep at midnight! Midnight. Yes, midnight. Time to clean up the messes. And do you think I'd wrapped anything yet?! No. Greg tried to help and organized and wrapped with me as long as he could hold out. Eventually I was on my own...

And this is the clock as I finally went up to bed. Yes. 6:07am.

I was just glad to be done before the kids got up so they could wake up to this...

And they did... about an hour and a half later...

6 comments:

Jill said...

How nice to have good friends who are like family. It looks like a super fun night. I'm impressed that you planned 25 activities!

You must have been wasted after staying up all night wrapping, but everything looks beautiful.

Shannon said...

Once again I am thouroughly impressed with you! 25 activities- I could barely think of one or two to keep my kids entertained. I love the songs by the kids- so creative of the girls! Next year I want to do Christmas with you!!

Airmom said...

What a fun Christmas eve...how I wish I could have been with you. I was working... :(
I maybe could have done 12days of activities in one evening but 25...wowsers...not sure how you do it on so little rest..amazing.
Jillie and Reagan...I had no idea you had such sweet voices...I am impressed and boys...wowsers what a rendition of Rudolph...perfect and joyful.
Nikki be grateful Greg stuck it out for a short time...Rog never and I do mean never stayed up to help ever!!!! I would crawl into bed around 2 or 3 and Rick would be whispering in my ear at 4...Mom...Santa has been here...get up. lol
Maybe one of these years we can all be together once again for Christmas.
Love and miss you all so much.

Anonymous said...

Love all the pics!

What a fun night.

Happy New year!

Leanne said...

Wow. You give new meaning to the name "night owl". haha. I don't know where you find the energy. I am a night owl too, but YOU are an all-nighter owl!!

Glad everyone had fun!

Caity said...

Oh man, you sure know how to party! I'm going to come back to your blog next year for some ideas for games on Christmas Eve! How fun! Except for staying up so late! How did you do it?