Happy Christmas

Christmas morning is a little odd at our house. You see, we don't do Santa Clause, and Dave's family has always had a very informal Christmas. And Dave is always exhausted by Christmas day, due to having to attend and preach at and MC assorted Christmas events, including the Christmas Eve service. So our tradition is for me and the boys to wake up and make pancakes. This year is was banana blueberry buckwheat (try saying that five times fast).


After we eat our creations, we finish wrapping presents, and the wake up Dad.

Dave and I just got each other stockings this year, since he prefers to buy his own presents (he's quite particular), and he hates to waste money on things I may not like. We did have some cool presents for the boys, however. Among them the complete rocket ship for Spaceboy:


A dinosaur for Aaron -- though is favorite present of the morning was the jellybeans in his stocking.

Plus swords, sword belts and capes, and action figures that Andrew actually bought for himself and Aaron. The action figures have kind of upstaged everything except the rocket ship, and so the swords haven't seen much use yet. I know they're time will come, so I'm not too worried.

This was followed by Dad going back to sleep, the boys playing with their presents, and me making dinner. We felt really blessed this year because one of the youth group kids gave us a turkey for Christmas, and someone in our church gave us potatos and squash, so virtually our whole dinner was provided for us. Since Dave doesn't eat rolls, and no one else eats stuffing, we just added some carrots for the boys, who don't like squash, and my famous apple pie. Yum.


We had quite a quiet Christmas this year -- the boys stayed in their pj's all day, and we had several nice phone calls from family living across the country. When my family gets together for Christmas it is always a rowdy, loud, dramatic affair, so I do miss the noise and craziness. But it was nice to know that I am building Christmas traditions for our family that will last for years to come, and to give the boys nice memories for the future.

How was your Christmas? Do you have a favorite moment?