Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas at home this year. The last time we did that (Christmas by ourselves, at our own home, and with Ed not deployed or me in the hospital) was when we lived in Ohio...2005, I believe. We missed our families, and we had a hard time remembering all our traditions, but I think it turned out alright.

Christmas Eve dinner was our tradition we began in Okinawa - shish kabobs.

Afterwards we got ready for bed, read Luke 2, and sang Christmas songs.  The girls ran off to bed with strict instructions to not touch anything but their stockings the next morning.  Ed and I ate the birthday cupcakes they left for Santa (I'm thinking that will be a new tradition as well) and got to work on Christmas morning.

We tried to keep it relatively simple this year.  The girls were still spoiled.

For the first year ever, the girls got up earlier than normal Christmas morning.  Kimberlee was up at 5:30.  She got all her sisters up, but they didn't come and pound on the door like we used to do to my parents.  But, like my parents, Ed and I were awake, but chose to stay in bed until closer to 7:00, just to torture them.

I don't know if you recognize that pillow pet, but it's Francesco Bernoulli from Cars 2.  This funny kid decided about 3 days before Christmas that what she really wanted was a Francesco doll.  Mr. Bernoulli is not exactly the main character of the movie.  But he's her favorite, and lucky for her (and super lucky for us) there happened to be exactly one plush "Francesco doll" at Walmart that we found after looking through every single bin of stuffed animals/blankets/pillow pets they had.  She was thrilled.

Happiness abounded for all.  I heard no whining about the 48 things on their wish lists that they didn't get, or "No Fair!"s about things their siblings got that they didn't.  It was beautiful.

Afterwards we had breakfast casserole and monkey bread/sticky buns and hot chocolate.  This is a new idea for the girls, but a tradition for Ed (well, not the casserole).  Most of the girls opted for my family tradition instead (cold cereal).

But Ed and Kassie and I enjoyed the nice breakfast.

I don't have any pictures of us dressed in our finest for church.  I was a little anxious about my part in the sacrament program (I'm the ward organist and the choir pianist, and the program was almost all music).  Just imagine us in our matching black and red.  The program was beautiful, Keira turned pages of piano music for me like a champ, and we all left uplifted and reminded of the true meaning of Christmas.  Who could ask for more?  Merry Christmas all!