Friday, December 24, 2021

A Happily Busy Christmas Eve

 358/365

Happy Christmas!  As my British friends say.  

We were so Blessed today, to be able to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with Eric's family.  We have been doing this for years, but last year, we didn't get a chance to, we did our own thing last year, Zooming with Family, and Zooming our Church service.  

This year, was refreshing, because we got to get together with the Fam again. 

We brought things to put on a snacking spread. Eric found a Serrano Ham from Costco.  It's supposed to be a great dried ham.  But when he cut it, it was hard to cut, it was supposed to be put on a rack, it didn't work out.  Instead, the screws were stripped, and Eric took a chunk out of his finger with the knife. Mom made a joke about how many Willmans it takes to cut a ham, because at one point there were 4 trying to mess with the dern thing.  It made us laugh.  We thought it would be awkward being there with Dad being sick and all. But Dad made it, curled up in the corner and napped... much like some years when there's a football game, so it was very similar.  He felt up to making jokes and engaging with all of us, so it was pretty great. 


Before the kids all began to eat, and possible drop food on themselves, we got them to hold still for a picture for Grandma and Grandpa on the stairs.  



We let them make a silly shot too. 

Alexis' boyfriend Gio suggested they make peace signs, and that made everyone laugh.  It was Good. 


The little kid table...where the kids don't look so little. 


Kaylee wants to be an exotic vet, and she's well on her way. 
She introduced me to her pet rat Winnie (like Pooh, not Winifred). 
Winnie was precious. 


Then she brought down Casey, her bearded dragon.
Casey didn't like me.  She gave me the stink eye, and only let me pet one way with a finger, if I didn't touch just so, she twitched.  I apparently need more lizard practice.  She's beautiful though, those eyes were hypnotizing. 


Lexi showed us some of her Art Projects from school. 
She's really been developing her Gifts. 
This was a project made from an old copy of The Wizard of Oz. 
She painted and made collage from the pages, it was really neat. 


The kids were ready to open! 

The kids had shown great patience, but when they were ready, they barely waited to take turns. 


Cole hugs his new Nerf gun. 
He also yelled, "Bryce, you're going down!"  
He cracked me up! 


Bryce didn't even get through opening his present before turning to his brother and yelling, "No Cole, You're Going Down!" 



We got Alexis with this giant long box. She had no clue. I was a bit nervous. 
A couple years ago, we'd gotten a foam ax for Jeremiah, and she said, "I wish I had a sword". We made a mental note, and Alexis didnt' sent us a list this year, so it was perfect to give her the foam swords for Christmas.  She was so surprised!  


Alexis and Gio immediately started to spar a bit. She really liked the turquoise one.  So did I. 


Jeremiah got excited about his Minecraft Lego set. 
Sam knew that's one he needed, and that he would like.  
Good call! 



Panorama shot of the whole fam recovering. 


Kaylee gave her Kirby backpack a try right off the bat.  It's so snuggly soft. 


The boys brought their music so they could play piano for Grandma and Grandpa. 
They sounded good, but I was chatting with my sister in law when they performed so I didn't get videos. Another time. 
Meanwhile, Cole has been taking piano lessons too, and he snagged Jacob's music, and sight read for Frosty the Snowman.  He did a great job.  It helps to have a helpful cousin. 


We play an epic battle of Mexican Dominoes. 
It was so normal to play games. I just loved it.  Cole was so excited.  He didn't win every round, but he tried. Bryce tagged out, and Chris took his place, but I didn't get a picture of him.  
We had three rounds of relaxing fun. 
Unbeknownst to me, at the same time we were playing, up in Marion, the extended fam was also playing dominos. <3
I found out later from FB pics. 


This year we stayed home and Zoomed Church again. 
Pastor was out sick, and we didn't want to take any more chances if Covid was running through the church. We've only made it to Church in person one time since Thanksgiving. Two days later, Pastor got sick, and so did some other folks, but I'm not sure who.  We got emails saying if we'd been at the Rehearsal we were exposed, and though Jacob performed at the Children's Program, he was masked the whole time, and he didn't go to the Rehearsal. 
(Saved by Cookie Fest and Vaccines!) 
We're all healthy, but we wanted to stay that way, so we stayed home. 


Honestly, I kind of enjoy zooming Church on Christmas Eve from Home. The kids are getting to be good singers, and we made beautiful music, just us.  
And Zooming by candelight during Silent Night was still pretty awesome. 


After Church, the kids put up with me taking their Picture. 
They looked good in their new holiday flannels. 


Ahsoka is a photobomber, a cute one though. 


This one was my favorite. 
Even Ahsoka looks like she was smiling.  




It was a lot of work to get good photos today. 
Jacob had many accidents, and it took up a lot of our evening to deal with it. 
We didn't get our usual tv shows or books read as we usually do on Christmas Eve. 
Eric was just getting trains set up, and Jacob got to watch his go around just before bedtime, 
but not the other boys quite yet.  They'll be ready by morning, no doubt. 
The night is young. ;) 

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