Christmas 2013

 Our Christmas was magical this year with the kids being so aware and excited for it.  They kept hurling the phrase, "Santa's watching!" at each other, just like my siblings and I used to.  Except we shortened it to just "SANTA!!!"

We had about a million Christensen family parties leading up to the big day, all of which were fun, but we felt a little burned out by the time the actual day rolled around.  The kids were just tired of being hauled around and all the excitement and anticipation was making them a bit emotional.

We also had Emerson's Kindergarten Christmas program to look forward to. I was looking forward to it, anyway, until I got asked the night before the practice to learn 7 hard songs on the piano because the person who was supposed to do it just decided they didn't want to anymore.  It added a ton of stress that I didn't need or want, but I felt so awful for the Kindergarten teachers that I just ended up practicing like crazy and setting all other Christmas preparations aside.  It turned out really cute, and the teachers were so appreciative.  It's not every day you get an opportunity to save Christmas! :)

I think my very favorite part of Christmas was taking our kids to the dollar store and having them pick out gifts for each other.  They were just so excited and put thought into what they gave, (after they initially tried to pick out things that were actually for them...) and it was so dang cute to watch their excitement about what they gave to each other and to Ben and Maddi and me.  It was totally something I want to do again next year.  I think they almost blurted out what they got for each other about six dozen times, but we finally made it to Christmas Eve!

It was really fun to have all the siblings together again since we are spread out all across the country.  Some of them got to meet Maddi for the first time, and we got to see our little cousin Rowan.

On Christmas Eve, we were at the Christensens' house for the morning, participating in their annual Christmas pageant, and in the afternoon we headed to the Johnsons' house.  We had to change up tradition this year since the Chinese restaurant we always go to went out of business!  We were way sad, but the fondue and treats were delish and the kids had a great time watching Elf and making sugar cookies with Grandma and Grandpa.  Then we did our traditional sibling-gift exchange and our first ever cousin-gift exchange.


We tracked Santa on the computer, and E kept running into the next room to check every few minutes to make sure we hadn't missed him coming to our house.  We gathered up our thundering herd and headed home to sleep in our own beds so Santa would know where to find us.  We opened our new Christmas pajamas and got all ready for bed.  We had some excited little fellas.  Ben and I stayed up to watch A Christmas Story, and then headed to bed so the Big Man could come!

 (Mere seconds before Maddi's massive blowout that rendered her Christmas PJs useless)

 Santa's on his way!

Sammi woke up Christmas morning at the usual 7:00ish hour, and we were able to put her off while I fed Maddi and waited for E to wake up.  We finally had to wake him just before 8:00 so we could get started!  Santa was good to us.  He knows just what we like!

The kids were extremely pleased with their gifts, and mostly got what they wanted with some surprises thrown in.  Some favorites for E were his Tinkertoys, Car assembly set, Aggie hat, and Planes movie.  Some of Sammi's favorites were her Bitty Baby (complete with crib that Ben made), Princess Cupcake Party game, and Frozen playset.  They got spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa J when they and Nat, Brad, and Steph came for Christmas breakfast a few short hours later.  E got Jake's Tiki Hideout, and Sammi got some outfits for her Bitty Baby, and they both got subscriptions to Disney magazines.  We also got a lot of board games and some movies.  (I think Santa knew it would be a long winter inside.)  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast that only threatened to be ruined because my dang breakfast casserole was still runny in the middle.  Thanks to the innovation that is the microwave, we were able to eat it within a reasonable amount of time and it could still be associated with the rest of the breakfast.

We took it easy the rest of the day and let the kids play, play, play and Ben was the one that ended up cooking a festive Christmas ham dinner.  It was a good day to enjoy being together, especially since Ben didn't have much time off during the holidays.

We really tried hard to remember Christ this Christmas, and had a little manger with baby Jesus in it.  Every time the kids would do something nice for each other, we told them it was like doing something for Jesus.  It got to the point where they would do something good and then say, "Do I get straw!?"  It made me smile.