We had all the kids for Christmas Eve this year until Christmas morning. It wasn’t technically our year, but Rob had done some negotiating with his ex to accommodate other needs (primarily Gabe’s job – which is a whole story itself), which gave us this time (of course, at the last minute Rob’s ex wanted to pull out of the deal and caused a HUGE fiasco and a lot of stress at the last minute — expecting us to change all our Christmas plans to accommodate her desire to go back on her deal— trying to make Rob out to be the bad guy, of course…but really, could we expect anything different, especially after the kind of year we had with her).

ANYHOW.

The kids were super good little elves this year, and on the 23rd and 24th, my dining room seriously looked like Santa’s workshop. They made the most creative, heartfelt gifts, and amazing, carefully designed cards and messages. Warmed my heart.

We started the festivities with our traditional Christmas program: Carols, Teach the Children the True Meaning of Christmas, The Three Levels of Christmas, The Christmas alphabet (by Zach and Zandra), acting out the Nativity, and then Robbie’s special Christmas review and message. This year, my Mom also shared a Christmas alphabet story.

The kids are always so super excited for the gifts. They are sent to their rooms after the program, and have to wait for the ringing of the bell before they come charging down the stairs to see the gifts from us that we have laid out for them while they were in their rooms. I also love how excited they are to GIVE gifts!

We followed it all up with a giant buffet of a yummy things we rarely eat during the year. We then played some games and created the Santa cookie (and carrots for the reindeer) plate and headed off to bed.

Morning came quickly (Zach was pretty much an insomniac this Christmas eve) and we opened stockings and Santa gifts, before having cinnamon buns and chocolate milk.

The kids played around a little bit, before they all headed off to their other celebrations with their other families.

We had Rob’s parents and sister over for lunch and then took a nice, long nap, and ended our day with a movie:)