Christmas Prep and Christmas Eve

The two weeks of Christmas break seemed to fly by. I usually feel like I have a handle on things, but the few days before Christmas always end up being crazy. We were able to do some fun things together and had some relaxing days too. Especially since Eric's back went out, again.

We decorated the tree, of course, but I forgot to take pictures so here is one of Avery re-decorating.We had two rounds of gingerbread house decorating. First our neighbor gave us a kit and the kids each got two sides to decorate themselves. They each had their own methods.Cameron put on the candy he liked in a pretty orderly fashion.Natalie piled on as much candy as she could. I think she was hoping they would get to eat whatever candy was on their sides.Ella did her best to make her sides look like the picture on the box.

A few days later we made graham cracker houses with the left over supplies for a YW activity. Unfortunately there are no pictures of these because Eric and I were both helping to build. Ella had a whole vision for hers, Cameron kept saying Ella's was better and he wanted his exactly like Ella's and Natalie was teamed up with Eric so hers was built the strongest with the most architectural features. They had a lot of fun and ate way to much candy in the process.

Since my parents are on a mission and I felt like I had just cooked Thanksgiving dinner, I wasn't up for making a big dinner for just our family and my sister. So, we decided that we would go out to dinner for Christmas Eve. It was so nice and the kids behaved really well. Eric and I were both nervous since it is very rare that we all go out to dinner. After dinner we went home and attempted to act out the nativity. I think everyone was getting tired so there were tears about who got to be who, what they got to wear, people not doing what they were "supposed" to so finally we gave up and hoped it would be better next year.

The kids all got their pjs on and ready for bed and then we exchanged presents. We each drew and name and were given a $5 limit for the gift. The kids were excited to pick something out for each other and almost everyone was happy about what they got.

Natalie got a magic set,
Ella got a nail polish set,Avery got some food for her babiesand Cameron got a Lego set, which he was not happy about.
And then Natalie, Ella and Cameron got to open the surprise that I had been secretly working on. Since none of them needed pjs I didn't buy them any for Christmas, but instead made them bathrobes. Natalie and Ella were very excitedCameron, not so much. He didn't want one with basketballs, and footballs and soccer balls on it. One last shot before bed with everyone showing how they really felt about the night. Before bed I gave them a quick talk about being grateful for what we are given and that if they cry or complain about a gift then I would be giving it to Goodwill so a child who would appreciate it could have it. Maybe that's mean of me, but I was getting tired of the tears and complaining at every holiday and thought they needed a little lesson in gratitude. :)