Christmas, Christmas! Read all about it!

Here are my two little up-early cuties waiting for their grown up siblings to get up so we can do Christmas (note the hairbrush on the desk):

Once we'd dragged all the big kids out of bed the kids all lined up for the Christmas train. I honestly don't know how many more times we'll get to have all six of our kids home for Christmas, so this was a beautiful (and a little bit sad) Christmas for me.

Daddy led them all around the house, out on the back deck, under the kitchen table, over the couch in the TV room, and jokingly tried walking them into our pantry:

Here's Phoebe happy to finally burst through the curtain into the music room (turned Christmas room):

Alexander was hot on her heels:

On Christmas Eve we take down the stockings, which have by then been hanging on the mantel (or wherever) for several weeks, and the kids choose a spot to leave their stocking for Santa to find and fill. It's very important that you know that before I tell you that every year at least one child goes to the wrong stocking!

Most of the stockings even have the kids' names on them! I petered out at the end there, so Alexander so far only has A and Phoebe's stocking is blank but the rest of them have names! And still some child will be drawn to the wrong stocking. 

You can perhaps see from Alexander's body language that he was the child this year that had no clue where to go. Did he make a huge deal about his place, saying, "I call the Grandma chair! The Grandma chair is mine!"?

Absolutely he did.

Was he immediately drawn to Phoebe's stocking rather than his own and needed me to point his out to him? Also yes.

Zoë got a Minecraft fox:

Alexander got a Minecraft dog (he really wanted a Dennis—I hope this was close enough (from his smile I assume so)):

And Phoebe got this Minecraft cat:

Benjamin was fairly certain that he'd be getting a Minecraft stuffed animal as well but, uh, he was mistaken. Here he is walking around in his dog-paw socks, though:

Following Andrew's family's tradition, we typically pass out all the presents under the tree and then watch each other open them, with the youngest child going first. (Kelli and I recently discussed this and we settled on the story that in our family growing up we would pass out a (singular) present to each person and then watch everyone unwrap, and then pass out another present to everyone and watch them unwrap...but I think that gets complicated when there's not an even number of presents to go around). 

Phoebe had a hard time waiting and started unwrapping things before Andrew had finished passing out presents (in spite of everyone telling her "No! No! Phoebe, stop! Phoebe, wait!" It didn't matter—she was ripping packages open left and right.

She got a lot of things that she was very excited about, but I think her most darling reaction was to a card from Grandma Pat, which she hugged to her chest and crooned, "I will love this card forever!"

Grandma Pat had also sent some Christmas window clings, which Phoebe and I put up shortly before Rachel arrived, I think. And Phoebe said sweetly, "I love doing this with you, Mom!"

It was such a genuine statement—she really was loving the process of putting the window clings up, but more importantly...putting them up with me—that we've been jokingly (but seriously) saying it to each other since. 

"I love going on this walk with you, [whoever]."

"I really love playing this game with you."

I think it's a good exercise to tell people that you love being with them—because we do love being with each other (even if we don't say it or when we sometimes get annoyed). It just feels good. 

Grandma Pat had put thoughtful little titles on each of the cards. I wish I had made a record of each of them, but I didn't. I remember that mine and Andrew's were "still the world's busiest parents" and Miriam's was something about "#1 organist" and Benjamin's was something about swimming and Zoë's involved gymnastics, Alexander was "#1 math whiz" or something, Rachel said something about college, and Phoebe's was something like "master of the house." 

They were funny and specific and the kids loved the cards. 

I need to be better about sending cards out—I used to be pretty good at it! And then...I fizzled out...

But we just got a bunch of postcards in the mail from Auntie K and Uncle Allen with tiny little notes one them (like the ones from Grandma Pat) and the kids were all so excited to have those couple of sentences to boost their spirits. 

What I'm saying is that cards and postcards and things aren't inconsequential—they can be very meaningful (and we're so happy to be thought of).

Grandpa joined us for Christmas morning, so he got to watch us all open up our gifts:

I have about ten billion pictures of the kids opening presents and...I'm just not sure how many to share. So let's rewind a bit...back to stockings. Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying their stocking finds:

These little hedgehog hand-towels were popular. Below you'll see Alexander feeling rather excited about a little axolotl finger-shooter. Everyone got a handful in their stocking. We like to keep things tense over here. 

Here's Phoebe exploring her Bluey travel system:

And finding all her candy, most of which ended up in the communal candy dish...

Phoebe quickly ate all of her Smarties/Rockets that I'm sure made an appearance due to a conversation  we had with Rachel about how much she likes Smarties/Rockets (and everyone agreed with her and mentioned how few they got at Halloween). 

She didn't eat much of her chocolate.

Alexander as well asked me if it was permissible for him to put his portion of Ferrero Rocher into the communal candy dish (or whether he was required to eat them). I guess he wasn't a fan.

Zoë was thrilled to get a Wicked t-shirt in her stocking.

Here are the kids playing with the Bluey airplane toy. Oaklyn and Ireland got this set for Christmas, too!

Here's Phoebe getting down to business:

She was quite excited for this Grogu robe (one of several gifts that came from the Buy Nothing Group):

We regift items not only to save money (though that is part of the reason), but also to avoid waste. People buys so much stuff (ourselves included), but so much stuff already exists! It doesn't make sense to buy new when a used item can bring you the same amount of joy. 

Phoebe's also wearing the kitty backpack Uncle David sent for her. 

Zoë also got a kitty backpack, though she swapped for Phoebe's plain grey one. Andrew and I had a discussion about which girl should get which backpack—noting that the white/brown/orange one looks more like Waffles than the grey one. Zoë and Phoebe had their own discussion along those same lines later and determined that Phoebe should have the Waffles backpack. They're both happy with their cat backpacks, so it all worked out.

And here's Alexander holding the reusable water balloons Uncle David sent (Benjamin got the same):

In the background you can see some nutcrackers. Some (most) are from Karen's collection. The pilot (second from the right) was from Grandpa Frank's collection.

Here's Alexander with some books:

And here's Zoë opening a set of translucent LEGO bricks: 

She was very excited for this Huntr/x sweater:

Auntie Josie sent some sets of dice for Zoë and Alexander (she gave a set to Benjamin when he was out there in the summer). I was trying to remember which set she said was for which child when I was wrapping them and I thought I remembered that green was for Zoë and Blue was for Alexander, going solely off the colour of the bag. And I was correct, which is good! Because I did not realize that the dice inside were so personalized. 

Zoë's dice have little foxes inside and Alexander's have little owls inside. Such a sweet gift!

Zoë was also rather excited about these clip-on earrings we got for her:

There are so many different ones for her to try, some for nearly every holiday, and then some! Here she is trying on the fox earrings (of course):

Here's Benjamin getting really excited about books:

We got both Benjamin and Miriam piano scores from Wicked, with Benjamin's being quite beginner and Miriam's being quite complicated. Miriam has played quite a bit through her book, accompanying the rest of us singing. Benjamin...will need more coaxing to try out his book, I think...but I'm hoping to convince him to try to learn a bit more piano before he leaves the house.

Here he is with his Wicked book (while Miriam sits nearby, doing an excellent job of picking up wrapping paper):

I think the gifts Benjamin was most excited about were (1) his "mineral collection" LEGO set and (2) the drone Grandpa gave him (a Samsung perk).

Here's Miriam starting on her gifts:

With Phoebe interrupting to show her Alexander's "Dennis," which Phoebe apparently hadn't noticed earlier:

She was excited to get socks (lots of people in our family got new socks this year, myself included):

She got some sweaters and things....I dunno. She was actually kind of a difficult kid to shop for, but was pretty chill about what she got. She didn't know what she wanted and didn't want a lot of stuff she didn't want, so since she didn't know what she wanted she took that as a sign that she didn't really want much at all. And I think that's fair. 

Up next was Rachel, whose pile was small...and even a little smaller because one of her presents ended up in Phoebe's pile and Phoebe was a present-opening machine. When she got to Rachel's present, she tore open the wrapping to reveal...a set of off-set spatulas.

"Huh?" she said with a grimace.

Here's Rachel holding a set of regular spatulas, which she also wanted:

Andrew actually bought her a pack before she went out to Utah the first time, but forgot to give them to her, so he just opened them up and put them into our rotation. She's excited to have some in her apartment.

And here she is getting so excited about a forehead thermometer:

My mom and Auntie Josie got an oral thermometer with her, which is arguably more accurate than a forehead thermometer, but the forehead thermometer is much more fun (at least in our kids' opinion) and is better for sharing. Now Rachel can line up her roommates and take their temperatures, just like we do with the kids at home! Fun times!

Isn't it strange being a grown up...and becoming excited about things like spatulas...when just a decade prior you would have gone, "Huh?" if you received spatulas?

Here she is opening a less practical, more frivolous gift:

A book by Edward Gorey, one of Rachel's favourite creepy authors (The Wuggly Ump made its way into our household collection years ago and it both terrified and delighted Rachel):

Here are the kids digging into the pile of family presents after opening their individual gifts:

We got games like the Bluey Scavenger Hunt game (Ireland and Oaklyn have this and Phoebe loves playing it):

Auntie K and Uncle Allen sent this chicken and hot dog flipping game:

The kids have been playing it constantly—we can hear fwap, fwap, fwap all day long as they attempt all the tricks on the challenge cards.

Here are the kids starting around of the Bluey game:

And here's Phoebe (with her "day carrot") joining in a round of UNO:

After Grandpa went home, we took a family walk.

It involved a lot of Phoebe swinging!

For dinner we had latkes with beef stew and used up the last of the Christmas crackers I had on hand:

And that's about the wrap on Christmas!

After dinner we acted out our Book of Mormon nativity story and sang "Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus," the last in our planned Christmas devotionals. Then we had family prayer, read some stories, and put Phoebe to bed. 

Then I'm certain we played some games. We've been playing so many games, staying up way too late visiting, and all the days are running into each other...as they tend to do in the liminal space between Christmas and the New Year.

It's been a delightful holiday.