As the oldest child, I got to be my mom's assistant Christmas Elf for years and years. I love elfing on Christmas Eve! This year I managed to wrap most of the gifts ahead of time, but there was still much to be done on Christmas Eve.
We don't put any gifts under the tree prior to Christmas. This is partly a matter of practicality; with so many little people running around, keeping gifts wrapped might be challenging (although, I will take this opportunity to acknowledge that - shockingly - Nellie didn't mess with the ornaments on the Christmas tree this year as I thoroughly expected her to). The main reason, however, is that I love the contrast from "nothing" when the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve, to "WOW!" on Christmas day.
Just as I was finishing up my elf duties (hello, midnight), Little Nell woke up and decided she wanted to be Santa's helper as well. At first, it was kind of cute. I just had a couple things to finish up, so I brought her downstairs. She immediately spotted the stroller we got for her and wanted to push it all around.
A few minutes later, I took her back upstairs, nursed her and put her back in bed.
No dice.
Three and a half hours of screaming, and tantrumming, and steadfastly refusing to go back to sleep later, it was significantly less "cute."
When the first big kid came into our bedroom at the designated "allowed wake up time" of 7 am, I was 100% not ready to wake up. I stalled, "Graham's not up yet, let's wait for him until at least 7:30."
When I ran out of stalling tactics, I finally rolled out of bed. I'd like to say that, once up, I was happy and delightful, but I was still tired. And grumpier than should be allowed on Christmas morning.
All the pictures you see in which we are dressed up were taken before church. All the pictures with kids or parents in pajamas were taken post church, when we finished up the gift opening.
I have to say, I LOVE having Christmas on Sunday! We only had Sacrament meeting, and we combined with two other wards. There were SO MANY people there. The meeting primarily consisted of a "music and the spoken word" type program. Aubree played a rendition of "Away in the Manger" on her violin. A young friend accompanied her on the piano. The girls worked really hard on music that was a little beyond both of their skill levels.
Besides Aubree's playing, my favorite part of the meeting was the congregational hymns. Everyone sang their hearts out in praise and worship and gratitude. It was powerful and meaningful, and just what every Christmas Day needs.
When we got home, we put Nellie down for a nap and finished up our gift opening. When that was over, I put myself down for a much-needed nap, and woke up a few hours later feeling much better.
Here are some of the gift highlights of the year:
We made Grandma and Grandpa Winters a collage blanket full of pictures from our Myrtle Beach reunion last summer.
Nellie's favorite gift is definitely her new stroller.
Mark, who doesn't particularly like getting gifts, really likes his new t-shirt which combines two of his favorite things...
Thane was really excited to finally get his own throw blanket. Most of his siblings have their own already, and now he gets to join the club.
Aubree loves her new Princess Bride shirt and coordinating leggings. She'd wear them every day if allowed.
This year, Bryce was my easiest kid for whom to shop. I had countless ideas of things I thought he'd just love. It was a tough choice, but he says his favorite gift is a robot kit.
He and Mark spent many involved hours post Christmas putting it together.
Graham was pretty enthused about the new Wedgit set we got, but his favorite gift is probably a new workbook so he can "do his school work" like his big brothers!
All December long, the big kids reminded me, "don't forget to get Nellie a box of tissues for Christmas! Remember how much Graham loved his box of tissues? Mom! You have to let her pull out every single tissue!"
Good thing I didn't forget!
Our best family gift came as a combined present from both sets of grandparents - a new Vitamix! It's something we've been wanting for a long time and we haven't been disappointed!
The day after Christmas, we made something in the Vitamix for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and dessert. Since then, we've been using it an average of twice a day. When Grandpa Winters left to fly back to Pennsylvania, he asked us to text him the first day we didn't use it. No text yet!
At the beginning of December, when we pulled out all our Christmas stuff, I was impressed with all the Christmas books we've collected. Bryce spread them all out on the floor and made the goal to read every single one.
A couple weeks later, a heavy box arrived from my mom with an early Christmas gift for our family. Starting with her first Christmas after getting married (I was 6 weeks old), Mom had a tradition of acquiring new Christmas books. Inside each one, she marked the year and sometimes the names and ages of her children.
This year, she divided this massive collection amongst her eight children. What a fantastic gift! While I thought we had a lot of books before, now we REALLY have a lot of Christmas books! Good thing we're bibliophiles.
Though we adore Christmas, we have a tradition of packing everything up the day after it's over. Until next year, Christmas!
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