Christmas Eve & Christmas Morning

One of our family traditions is for Wes's parents to come over on Christmas Eve Day and stay the night.  This started a long time ago when we lived far apart and Wes's parents would travel to visit us over the holidays.  Now that they live so close, they don't have to spend the night to visit us the next day.  But after 13 years of being here on Christmas Eve, we just didn't think it would be right to change the tradition--they are part of it.  Besides, if they weren't sleeping on the couches, who would protect Santa and the stockings from sabotage by crazy teens and their schemes?!

 

 

This is what it is all about . . . snuggles!

Leah has to stock up on her snuggle while she can!

What we love about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day--
LOTS OF SNUGGLES!

I don't have a picture of this part--but it is also our tradition to read Luke 2 and talk about the
True meaning of Christmas on Christmas Eve.  When the children were little,
we used to act it our for Gramma and Grampa, even dressing up
and using "Arnold" our big stuffed horse as a donkey for Mary.
 We don't act it out anymore, the kids don't want to.
 But we enjoy an evening considering our blessings and gifts
that come from the birth, life, and Atonement of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Another family tradition: WES (not Melissa)
males homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve. 
And they are sooo good!

After eating one with a tall glass of milk, the kids leave a
 plate for Santa and his reindeer.

 

The shot of the tree Christmas morning.
 

She's trying to guess what is in her package.

 

Elias in his favorite chair looking at a Star Wars sticker and story book Santa brought him. 
He was all about Star Wars this year. 

Leah loved the easel that her Grampa built for her. 
She loves art, writing, creating, you name it!

When these got unwrapped, they were opened with
exclamations of  "what in the world are these for?"
Not even Mckay could figure out what they were for.
And then they opened the air soft guns!

Elias opening more Star Wars with Mckay eying them and thinking,
 "Oh yeah, I'll help him play with these!"

Gramma opening the gift Elias got her.

More things to keep us connected as teams while we
 play capture the flag air-soft and other games.

Wes bought me this rug in Nauvoo, Ill. on our trip a few years ago.
  I wanted to hang it but never got around to it.  So he made, by hand,
a pole for me to hang it on and then hung it for me.  It was a great present. 

This present sat in the other room.  He didn't even notice it all morning.
 I bet he kept wondering why he didn't have much under the tree.
 But once everyone was done unwrapping, we directed he attention  . . .

. . . .to the large sheet in the opposite room.
  I'm sure he knew immediately what it was. 

But he was still excited!

Oh yes!

A traditional scene: all of us gathered around Gramma
as she looks at her yearly photo album made by Melissa.

Next, we gather around Grampa to look at his yearly picture calendar.

 

Faux Camping

We like to go camping.  Over Christmas break we had high hopes of spending a few days camping--we can do that in December because of the delicious Southern California weather.  Even when the weather is cold, and often even when it is rainy,one can putter over towards Palm Desert and find agreeable weather.  True, it is desert, but there are still enjoyable activities such as kite flying, hiking and rock climbing, rock and gem hounding, air soft gun wars, archery . . . huge evening bonfires. 

Alas, this December, it was too cold for us to brave it.  We've actually had one of the coldest winters I've experienced in Southern California.  Not that our 28 degree weather can even touch the negative degrees I experienced in Idaho! Still, Wes and I figured it was a little too chilly for the kids (okay--for us parents) to go camping.  We were bummed because we didn't have much else to do and we were tired of sitting around in the house. 

That's when I came up with the brilliant idea of faux camping.  My brother owns a home in the mountains.  His mother-in-law lives there, but was out of town for the holidays.  I made arrangements and we packed up--off to go "camping" in my brother's house.  In the basement, there is a stove and a large, empty spot of carpet.  We unrolled our sleeping bags on the floor and started our "campfire." 
What a fun time we had . . . as you can see in our pictures.  Isn't it funny how just being somewhere else (besides home) can change the atmosphere and create a little adventure? 

Roasting marsh mellows over our campfire.

I'm not sure about his face???
But I know he's excited to eat his smore.

Everyone roasting hot dogs for dinner.

It was cold, but since we knew we could get warm and dry, we went out in the forest for a romping good game of "hide-and-seek-air soft."  Leah was the best hider, but when the opposing team found her, she had to be saved by her teammates!

My mom makes me wear these silly goggles so I don't shoot my eye out!

"How do these look on me?"

Watch out for dad, he's a good shot!

When we got too cold, we played monopoly as a family for the first time ever.
  It was New Year's Eve, so we played long hours late into the evening.

And we ate donuts.

Oh Yeah!
Nice lipstick Ryanne.

Then we cheered in the New Year and toasted with our Martinelli's.

The next day we went to the playground.



It was cold, but after running around for a bit, we started to shed the layers.

We played basketball,

They had fun trying to slam-dunk the ball.

 

I just thought they were cute.

Someone, Mckay I think, had the crazy idea of playing snow soccer!  That was wild! 

It's not an easy thing to run and kick a ball on icy, melting snow!
 

"Ahhhh!" "I'm falling!"

 



Several people ended up on their bums!



 

Elias kept throwing snow at me!

 

Ryanne wanted to use her new water polo ball to practice throwing and catching.



Mcaky, Wes and I had a quick lesson from her on how to handle the ball . . .



He doesn't look as sure of himself as he did when playing soccer and basketball!

In the meantime, Leah and Elias had fun on the playground.

Upside down sliders!

 

All-in-all we had a great two day get-away and most of all,

we really enjoyed spending some uninterrupted time as a family.