My Mom and sister came for Christmas as they usually do, and we had our turkey dinner on the 23rd when they arrived (I forgot to get pictures). We had celebrated with Rob’s family a couple of days earlier.

On Christmas Eve day we tried to go bowling as we have done in the past, but most of the bowling places have closed:( So we watched a movie and then the kids were pushing to get started early on our usual Christmas Eve program. I think every year I end up having a fight with Zach about when we need to get started. If it were up to him Christmas eve would start shortly after lunch!

We first start out with a few Christmas carols (always Silent Night – that was always Zach’s favourite when he was little- in fact, when he was little, we added it to his repertoire of nighttime songs and would sing it well into the spring!) . The singing is following by Zach and Zandra reading the Christmas Alphabet that they wrote when they were younger:

I then read a bunch of different stories helping us remember the real meaning of Christmas.

The kids then act of the Nativity. (My camera was on a bad setting, so the pics didn’t turn out).

Rob ends the program off by reading the poem he created summarizing our year:

The kids are then sent to their rooms to await the “ringing of the bell”. While they are in their rooms, Rob and I put out all the gifts from us. When we are done, we ring the bell and they come running down the stairs to open gifts!

After gifts, we have a big buffet (which I forgot to take a pic of) and then hang out until it’s time to head to bed! This year I had to push the kids to get to bed earlier than their usual holiday bed schedule (which has been between 1-3 am for the older kids!!!) so we could leave cookies out for Santa.

Josh awoke first this year – around 8 am and got everyone out of bed to see what Santa delivered.

After Santa’s gifts and stockings we have a nice big breakfast before the kids have to head off to their other parents:( The rest of the day is pretty chill and low key, but nice nonetheless.