We've got a lot of Christmas traditions, or so I thought. I asked the older boys what their favorite traditions were, thinking to bag all the extra stuff I do that goes unnoticed and doesn't really matter to them all for the sake of simplifying, and was surprised when they said we don't really have any traditions. What??!! We have a bunch and I'll touch on a few.
I make the most amazing peppermint frosted sugar cookies and we deliver them to friends and families who we love. This year Marcus got to drive and blasted his Christmas music in a van decked out in Christmas lights. We took cookies to Marcus's seminary teachers and one of them even came out in the rain, dressed in his pajamas to thank us and tell us how great Marcus is.
Brother's Night! Dinner and shopping for a secret brother is always one of the highlights of the Christmas season.
This year will always be remembered with fondness as we remember the fried pickles I insisted on making everyone try at dinner. I never knew there was such a thing until a few months ago and when I tried them I knew I had to share with my boys. They are delicious! My boys thought they were pretty good too. We always draw names so the boys know who to shop for but now they seem to enjoy purchasing gifts for all their brothers. It's pretty awesome that they care so much. It makes my mom heart sing.
Christmas Eve dinner is the one meal that I use all my nice tableware for.
We had the missionaries over and we lucked out with elders who liked my cooking and were happy to be with us. We pulled open our English Crackers and wore the crowns the rest of the night. Also per tradition, we had to scarf down our food so we could race across town to sing carols to a sweet widow in the ward. Our whole ward goes every year on Christmas Eve and every year we are the last ones to arrive. I always forget how much longer it takes to eat a nice meal and pop our English crackers.
The Elders even stayed for our traditional Christmas Eve family night. Elder Jones played a beautiful rendition of a hymn for their talent. Most of the boys played the piano for their talent, Ethan did a sock puppet show about how he doesn't have a talent, and I showed off my recent power point presentation I created for a church assignment that I only managed to pull off by getting up at 3am for uninterrupted computer time.
Opening Brothers Gifts is always highly anticipated. Landon couldn't wait for Henry to open his baby shark toy.
Ethan gave Marcus a massage thing and Marcus was more than willing to put Ethan to work with it.
Eventually the Elders went home, the kids went to sleep, and I started wrapping gifts. I hadn't wrapped a single present all month. It's easier to just leave the Amazon packages untouched so curious boys can't peek. However, staying up until 1:40am wrapping presents was terrible. Next year will be different!
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