Grandma Lala and Papa John came over Monday for Christmas dinner with our family. It's remnant of being the adult child of the divorced, we always have two Christmas', one with my mom and one with my dad. I mostly remember being shuffled on Christmas day, and missing my gifts no matter WHERE we were, so I'm pretty mindful of how our kids are moved around. My kids don't have the baggage, however, so it's always FUN to them that we have two days of celebration, with people who love them.
Yesterday was a busy day, we had a Redneck Christmas dinner, brisket, BBQ beans, potato salad, yeast rolls. It was so perfectly delicious, and mom brought several trays of veggies and crackers with cheese. On top of that, the kids got cash from Papa, and THAT went over very well, as you can imagine. I wound up driving them around town today to spend their cash. lol! Ava bought a littlest pet shop set, and Sam and Dan bought XBOX controllers. I warned them that purchasing toys two days before Christmas might backfire, so we'll see.
Something else that we started, was early exchange of our name draw gifts. Many years ago we started name draws between the kids, mostly because I know with Zane's family there are so many people that they've stopped exchanging gifts. i don't think that gifts make the season, but it is fun to do between siblings, and I LOVE seeing how mindful they are of each other. I think this will serve them as they grow older, especially having the time to focus on others during the season. So now we'll start exchanging the gifts in the week before Christmas, in hopes that the tradition will survive the creation of their own families, if they choose to spend that day with their spouses and children, or even in laws. It's kind of funny how many things I do while planning for something twenty years in the future!
I have to find my camera cable, and download some pictures. I'll try to get those up soon.
For posterity, gift exchange:
Josh gave Dan an XBOX that he got for free, he just had to repair it, as it wasn't working. He also gave them two games that I had bought for him months ago but didn't work with his 360.
Bre gave Ava a My Little Pony and candy. VERY popular and I was thankful that after the year of picking on each other that they actually drew each other's names! Totally coincidence even!
Emily gave Rachel a webkins, and Rachel gave Emily Club Penguin stuffy. I'm a little suspicious of them, it's supposed to be a secret, but I think they were in collusion. :-D
Sam gave Dad a deck of cards and a soccer ball. The best gift ever was when he chose to donate the soccer ball to a little girl in our gift angels program, it was so sweet.
Dan picked out some cute little musical instrument toys for Nathan. Very popular with all the kids.
Nathan picked up an XBOX controller for Josh lol!
Ava bought mommy a coloring book and sharpie markers, knowing how much I LOVE coloring.
Dad bought Sam a Star Wars video game.
And mommy got Breanna some playdough toys.
whew!
1 comment:
The brisket was SOOOO good! Esp. the day after when we sliced it and baked it in BBQ sauce. I also liked watching the kids eyes light up when they opened their name draw gifts. X-Mas is going to have a hard time competing with this...
Post a Comment