Christmas Eve 2010

We spent the evening of Christmas Eve at Erik and Deanna's house.  We munched on all sorts of bad for you kinds of food, then opened the gifts we had gotten for one another.  Since all my siblings are married, we do a couples rotation so that we only buy a gift for one sibling and his/her spouse each year.  This year it was our turn to give gifts to Erik and Deanna, and receive gifts from Kirsten and Paul.  We have always each bought gifts for every niece and nephew, though there was some talk this year of including nieces and nephews in the rotation, as well.  I don't know how I feel about that.  On the one hand, it would simplify matters and save money.  Some of my siblings are struggling with gift ideas for the older nieces and nephews.

But, really, Christmas is a magical time for kids and I remember being so excited to see packages arrive at our house from far away relatives.  I also remember feeling so happy that they remembered me!  Their gifts weren't always spot on (exhibit A: the Barbie cologne from a distant aunt when I was 15), but at least they tried!  Nowadays we have so many more ways to stay in touch with each other that we should know what our younger relatives would appreciate!  If we don't, we haven't kept in touch well enough.

So, I guess you can see which way I feel about it.  I still want to send each and every niece/nephew something.  However, we don't get gifts for the 55+ nieces and nephews on Bill's side of the family.  But that is a topic for another day.

Trina and Jeff

Tori opening her gift from us.  Her big gift from her parents this year was  a doll house, so we got her a horse and rider accessory to go with it.  It is fun to watch little kids open presents! I wish I could have captured all of the nieces and nephews opening their gifts, but it was something of a fire storm of gift opening frenzy and I failed to capture all of it.  I think we did alright.  Oh!  There was a funny moment when Helena accidentally gave baby Luke's present to Kris (who is 11) to open.  There was a general laugh from everyone until that got straightened out.  Kris was a great sport about it and his real gift turned out to be fun for all the boys cousins.  We gave he and his brother, Dallan, matching Nerf guns to shoot at each other with.  From the noise I heard in their basement later, I'd say they were put to good use!

Erik opening his gift from us.  Bill picked it out, so I was sure Erik would be happy with it.  I can't be trusted to find the right gift for a guy.  I'm terrible at it!  It was some sort of battery charger for BIG batteries (like car or boat batteries).  Erik was really happy with it!

I chose Deanna's gift.  On the day that her youngest son, Luke, was blessed, I surreptitiously took several photos of him while I was holding him.  Yup!  Right there in the chapel!  So sacrilegious of me!  But despite the blasphemy of it, I got several truly gorgeous shots of Luke wearing the family blessing outfit for boys.  It is the same one Will wore when he was blessed!  I had a print of my favorite shot made and presented it to her in a silver tone frame.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of Mom opening her gift.  Drat!  We (meaning 'I') got her some of the Lehi Roller Mills muffin mix she likes so much and some hair product.  Last time she was in town she asked me how I managed to get both my wavy hair and Helena's curly hair to be so natural looking and manageable (aka. not frizzy) without using gels or mousse that leaves hair crunchy.   Here's my secret, I stumbled across an amazing product a while ago from a company called CHI.  However, I knew Mom would never buy it.  It's on the pricier end.  She simply won't spend on herself!  So I got it for her.  Ooooh!  I hope it works for her and that she likes it!

And, finally, Dad opening his gift.  He had sent out an e-mail telling us not to buy anything for him, but rather to donate the money we would have spent on him to the USO, or some other worthy cause.

The only problem with that was that I hadn't planned on spending any money on him.  His gift was a gift from the heart.  There is another post on here about his gift, so I won't go into lots of detail.  If you want to see it, just click HERE.

I hope he liked it.  I thought he did, but I couldn't be sure.  I know that Will loved it and wants it, but I told him I wouldn't make a second one, so he'd have to hope that Grandpa will give it to him, someday.

Once we got home from the party, we had our quick little Christmas Eve at home... Luke 2 and the opening of the Christmas pajamas.  Then we sent the kids to bed, stuffed the stockings, and made sure that Santa had 'visited' before going to bed ourselves.

A much better Christmas Eve than last year!