Catching Up With Christmas Pt. 5: Christmastime Is Here!

This one will be mostly pictures, since mere words can't really do the Christmas madness justice!

Anyway, this is what Christmas Eve looks like in my neck of the woods...

...it looks a lot like Labor Day (or maybe Halloween) everywhere else! Green grass, blue skies, cool breezes, bright sunshine...aah. This is the time of year when I can gloat about living in Arizona. I love snow, and I love cold days, and I do miss them sometimes down here. However, I have also come to appreciate the mild, crisp Arizona winters.

We started our Christmas Eve with a trip to the park near our house. We ran the whole gamut of seasons that day...we also got to see a lot of fall color!

The girls (and Daddy) also got to amuse themselves on the swings...

As the sky darkened, we headed home and got our big Christmas feast ready (ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, the works). Why were we celebrating "Christmas dinner" on Christmas Eve? Because this year, we had some good friends coming over to visit...

The Clawsons are a great family who we've known for a few years. They lived in our LDS ward boundaries for a time, then moved to another house in the neighborhood. We still kept in touch through various church and social activities, and Tawnya is a hairdresser who has given Nathan and I pretty good haircuts over the years.

Tawnya & Josh Clawson, and their kids Kyrick and Maliyah (with another girl baby on the way!)

Sadly, Josh and Tawnya decided to move back to Idaho to pursue a different job opportunity...and they chose the day after Christmas as their moving day! By Christmas Eve, their house had already been cleared out and they were "homeless," staying at a friend's empty house until the moving van could arrive. So we decided to have them as guests and give them a slightly "homier" Christmas Eve than they may otherwise have had.

We all had a wonderful time; dinner was great, we played a few board games, and the kids all played well together. Then all the kids got to open just one present, being Christmas Eve and all. They were very excited. And what were the new gifts?

 

New pajamas!! (Aurora had received new PJs a month or two before, so she received a cute new outfit). Everyone couldn't wait to show off their new duds for the cameras:

After all was said & done, we bid the Clawsons a reluctant farewell. We'll really miss them!! Still, it was a great way to say goodbye. After they left, all that remained was cleaning the kitchen and making the final arrangements for the Big Morning:

Santa got baklava as his treat...we treat our guests well!! (we also left out carrots for the reindeer)

 

The girls went to bed late on Christmas Eve, but still awoke filled with excitement. Their grinning faces over their cereal bowls tell it all!

Look! "Santa" left a note for the kids!

We tackled the stockings first:

 

And then set to work slowly, methodically tearing into all the presents under the tree.

Aurora with a moose from Grandma

Each girl got a fluffy Disney princess blanket; Aurora quite liked hers!

 

Aurora loved her little RC dog

Compared to last Christmas (A trampoline! A Wii!), this was a little smaller and more reserved...lots of small cheap presents, few big flashy ones. But no one seemed to mind. Everyone was very excited by all their gifts and all the goodies. The biggest items we received were board games...several of them! Most of them were family games that even the girls could play with us. It was nice to get gifts we could all share!

Daddy getting in touch with his "little girl" side...

 

Lorelai really wanted to knock those pigs down with the Angry Birds

Celeste managed complete tower destruction pretty early on

Action shot!

The Angry Birds game was a big hit (of course; wanton destruction never goes out of style). Our favorite family game so far, though, is the a board game called Viva Topo! It's a simple cat-and-mouse game, where a cat figure chases the mice around the board, trying to catch the mice before they disappear down several strategically placed holes and make off with all the cheese. It's very simple, but it has a good built-in natural tension and the girls love it. Their excitement is contagious, and so I (and even Nathan, the seasoned board-gamer) find ourselves having a really good time.

Even Grandma and Grandpa Barrett stopped by for a little while to enjoy the fun...

 

...although I don't think "Hedbandz" is Grandpa's game. He kept asking needlessly complex questions. While it did not help him guess his card correctly, it did make me desperately want an adult party version of this game...it would be really fun to play it with Grandpa Barrett!

Anyway. Christmas day gradually degenerated into everyone lying around, eating chocolate and leftover ham, getting into fights, and smashing brand-new piggy banks...

Wouldn't be Christmas without at least one casualty...

We got each of the girls a piggy bank for Christmas, thinking it will get them thinking more carefully about saving money. Unfortunately, Aurora got a little keyed-up (as she is wont to do) and dropped this piggy bank on our unforgiving tile floor. Oh, well...at least Lorelai and Celeste still have piggy banks! Aurora will have to wait for hers for another few years.

After that, Aurora took a well-earned Christmas nap under her soft brand-new blanket...

Visions of sugarplums, perhaps?

I wiled away the evening watching A Christmas Story on DVD. It's still one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies. It was perfect timing for watching it, too; the movie ends on Christmas night, with Mom and Dad looking out the window of their messy living room, Christmas tree filling the room with its glow, and snow softly pouring down outside. Sadly, we had no snow out our window, but everything else in our home matched that scene. It's that contented, relaxed, peaceful feeling that only comes on Christmas night, when the house is filled with excitement, happiness, and love. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!