Christmas Day

Christmas Day came at last.  

After so much planning on Matt's and my part regarding how to pull off this trip and give the kids another Christmas with their Grandparents.  

After all the questions they'd posed to us about the logistics of Santa Claus finding us in Ohio, and the studying of catalogs and the making and editing and rewriting of wish lists.  

Christmas came back at last.

And there's always that moment.  That perfect moment.  It's a different moment now that I'm grown.  When I was small it was laying in bed the night before wondering and then waking up in the morning to find the piles of presents.

It's different now.  It's either very very late on Christmas Eve or very very early on Christmas morning.  But the hustle and bustle of the season finally comes to a halt.  The to-do lists are complete.  My kids are tucked into bed, sleeping peaceful though no doubt dreaming of the surprises they're expecting when the awake.  But when it's all laid out.  The gifts are there.  The tree is lit.  

And there is finally peace.

I remember thinking Christmas Eve church was weird as a little kid.  But my parent's explained to me that Jesus was born in the dark and stillness of night and not during the bright busting sunlit hours of day.  That's why we go to church to celebrate his birth at night.  Because in a small stable some place far away, He came into the world during the peace of the night time.  

And with him came hope for the Earth.

Every year it brings hope to me as I sit there and and stare at the gifts and the tree late into the night. I forget about the cost and the energy it took to get us to this point.  And I know that the chaos will return in the morning.  It will be wonderful but it will be chaos.

So before I go to bed on Christmas Eve, every year, I take a moment and relish this:  

That pile under the tree looks insane I know.  Keep in mind that the little Charlie Brown style tree is set up on a trunk and that the gifts are stack on that truck as well as in front of it.   So the pile isn't as deep as it looks.  

And also there are gifts for Jono and Kelly's twin girls in there too, in addition to the gifts for the grown ups.

Don't want you to think we lost our minds or something.  Santa still brings the children three gifts.  (Sometimes one gifts comes in a few separate packages to complete a set, or something like that, but it's still 3.  Hahah.)

Oh and then of course their are little treats in their stockings.  I'm proud to say Lucy finally has a home made needlpoint like her siblings this year.  I FINALLY finished hers.  

So then the morning came.

It wasn't snowy and cold or white outside, but it was Christmas anyway, and everybody was excited.  

In keeping with tradition, we only allowed my kids to look in their stockings before breakfast.  This helped them to way for their twin one year old cousins to wake up too.  

It was fun to watch them study the packages as well and wonder what may be inside each one for a little while before tearing into everything.  

Here they are with the stockings.....

Then breakfast.  Gramma's cinnamon rolls.

Finally, once everyone had eaten a bit of something and the younger kids were up, it was time to begin. 

New Ohio State swag for me.  Nicely done children and husband.  :)

I had been singing "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" since early November
so Peter picked out a hippo ornament for me.

A stuffed cougar, her school's mascot.  

Peter got one too.

When the gifts were all unwrapped, Peter and Lucy made angels in the paper all over the floor.  At least the made the most of the fact that we traveled all the way to the Midwest only to miss out on a white Christmas.  

Another strange part about being grown.  I've noticed that enjoy opening all the boxes and assembling everything just as much if not more than the actual unwrapping of the gifts.  I mean, really, the surprise part is over by then, but it's when you put the toys together and get to play with them that the fun REALLY begins.

All in all, it was a great Christmas.  It was nice for my kids to get to share the holiday with their cousins, and the aunt and two of their uncles and the grandparents.  

Christmas Eve

Finally, or all at once, depending on your perspective of course, it was Christmas Eve.  The weather was unseasonably warm (like nearly in the 60s) and damp, rather than the cold snowy white Christmas all of us from California had been hoping to find in Ohio, but we powered on because really, the weather doesn't make the holiday one way or another.

We decided to go to the earliest possible church service, which of course was flagged as the Children's Mass.  I had hopes that the priest might do something special for the kids during the service but that didn't happen.  Apparently, in this case, the only thing special about the children's mass was that is was going to be ridiculously crowded so you had to get their ridiculously early to get a seat.  We did, so no worries there.  Also, since there were a ridiculously large amount of people and kids there, you had to be kind of understanding about things like babies crying or my children insisting they needed to use the restroom multiple time.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.  

That morning, I honestly for the life of me have no idea what we did.  I guess we just hung out and stuff.  The kids played with Uncle Josh in the basement or something I suppose.  And then before long, since we had church so early, and since we needed to be there even earlier to get a seat, we had to actually get dressed for church.

Lucy was first.

Seriously.  She loves that hat and mittens.  To bad it was only really cold enough
for her to wear them maybe once the whole time we were there.  Not that warmth really stopped her.

Here's a better one, without the hat.  

Then there was A.J.

Lucy fell asleep on her Dad almost immediately after she was ready.  Ha.

The hat fell off when she tilted her head. That doesn't look very comfortable to me either.

Silly girl.

Once Peter got gussied up in his suit Grandpa helped  him out
with a tie clip to keep it in place.

You can kind of see the clip in this close up.
He also got a flag pin for his lapel.
He was very proud of these.

So handsome.  But again with the inability to control his face.  Haha.
I mean, that is QUITE the smile son.  :)

We tried for our annual family photo in front of the tree.

Not sure how successful we were.  They're getting harder and harder to take each year.  And the really frustrating part is that the older kids (who ought to know better by now) are normally not the ones cooperating.....

So, okay whatever.

Then we went to church.

It was okay.   I still miss our old church in San Diego.  It was always crowded there on Christmas of course, but we had so many friends there to visit with that it always made the holiday seem extra special.  This was just crowded with people I'd never seen before and would probably never see again.  At least the kids mostly behaved.

And then we headed off to Matt's Family's Annual Christmas Eve Party.

Since... well... forever, everyone on his Mom's side has gathered on Christmas Eve.  It was at their Grandparent's house forever (including both Peter and A.J.'s first Christmases.)  Last year, I think, Great Grandma declared that she didn't want to deal with it anymore so they moved it to one of Matt's Aunt's houses.  It was the same old Christmas party as I've ever been too, just in a different location. Same food.  Same people, just many of them have grown up now, and there are a lot more babies now too.  Keep in mind, of course that Matt's mom is the 6th of 10 kids, so it's a big family.  BIG.  

Matt was one of the oldest of the grandkids so there were a few Great Grandkids years ago (like when Matt and I were a new couple, and when our neice and nephew's from his older brother were born) but then there had sort of been a lull in the new arrivals until around the time my kids started arriving on the scene.  Now there are all of our kids plus Matt's brothers twins plus probably a half dozen other babies in the last year or two from one cousin or another.  

It's nuts a little bit.  (But in a good way.)

Keep in mind I didn't have a big family.

Anyway.  

Basically the tradition is everybody gets together to hang out.  There's a big table of food and everybody snacks and eats as they see fit.  The kids run around with wild excitement and the parents do a terrible job of trying to keep them out of the cookies and candy.  Eventually, when somebody decides everybody who ought to be there has arrived, then there is the Reindeer Dance and the March of the Toy Soldiers.

What's that you ask?

Well, for the Reindeer Dance they put on a ridiculously old recording of "Up on the Housetop."  No I'm not kidding when I tell you until 2 years ago, when they finally moved the party out of Great Grandma's house (that is, she's Great Grandma to my kids.  She's Matt's actual Grandma,) they still played the music on an actual record.  Like.... made of VINYL.  Anyway, then, well it used to be Great Grandpa would lead everybody prancing around the table in a big circle with their arms in front of them like a reindeer hopping around on it's back legs.  There were always antlers to be worn.  When Great Grandpa got sick and eventually passed away, Great Grandma took over the lead.  

After the Reindeer Dance, is the March of the Toy soldiers.  This one is pretty self explanatory. Another ancient recording of the song from Babes in Toyland is played, and then everybody is supposed to stiffly march around like Toy Soldiers.  

Don't worry it seemed weird to me too years ago when I first came around, but now I just go with it.

And, if I'm honest, Peter, no being able to remember his previous Christmas in Ohio, seemed to think it was weird this year too.  (He refused to participate.)

And heck, if you look close, you'll notice a great many of the direct blood relatives think it's absurd and refuse to participate too.  

Cause it is.  Which of course is also what makes it so fun.

I feel like I'm going to get a bunch of family members sending hate mail to me for "picking" on the Reindeer Dance and Toy Solider March.  Ahem.  I'M NOT PICKING ON THEM.  I'm just pointing out that they are sort of weird.  But that's okay.  Because that is what makes these traditions special.

Anyway.

So this year, the head of the whole entire family decided she didn't feel up to leading the dances.  So, then, her youngest daughter, who also happened to be the one hosting the party this year come out on Facebook and writes this big "official-ish" motion to the family nominating a new, honorary leader for this year.

And who did she pick?

Why, A.J. of course.  Because she is all into dance.

Color me surprised.  Nothing again that particular Aunt, or any of the rest extended family, but I wouldn't have put money down on their abilities to tell people them names of my children let alone remember their talents.  Seriously.  We live on the OPPOSITE side of the country and we NEVER come home to visit.  They all have kids and grandkids of their own.  I assume nobody thinks that much abot us.  Honestly.

Also, the last time A.J. attended this Family Christmas Eve party she was 3 weeks old.  She literally wore a ridiculously adorable and poofy teeny tiny Christmas dress and slept the entire time while various Great Aunts and Second cousins who hadn't held a baby in awhile took turns snuggling her.  Now they wanted her to lead the precious reindeer dance?!?!?

Gosh.

Apparently I underestimated the amount of things people know when they are friends with a person on Facebook.

Anyway, so the family did this weird mock election style voting thing on Facebook and A.J. was in.  Then Matt and his cousin who just started at the Naval Academy got nominated to lead the march as the only attending family members who were in the service.

They do know sailors, uh, SAIL right?  Not a lot of marching going on aboard ship.  Nobody asked me.  

Anyway, so back to Christmas Eve.  A.J. was taking her duties VERY seriously.  I found it to be hilarious because there were some who doubted whether she would actually do it when the time came.  Yes, the girl has these random fearfully shy moment, but they are always when she doesn't know what to expect or is facing the unknown.  With proper preparation and guidance before hand, she's usually up for anything.... ESPECIALLY if it involves anything that could be considered an AUDIENCE for the the perform for. 

A.J. found her antlers in a pile of selfie props.  We have a variety of these types of head wear at home, but I hadn't known to bring them along, so she found her own.

Starting things off with Great Grandma.  

It was hard to get good pictures because they were basically making a circle round and around the house, moving from room to room.  But it was cute anyway.

Great Grandma QUICKLY settled into a comfortable chair and let A.J. run the madness.

Each year with a new baby usually features something like this.  I know my
kids had fun headgear when it was their first Reindeer Dance.

Eventually, Up on the Housetop ended and the Toy Soldier song got going and then the Navy men stepped up....

Er... along with Lucy.  :)  Also if you look carefully, you can see Peter in the middle headed the other
way, literally, trying to escape the weirdness.  Party pooper.

More Soldiers marching.  I must say, holding babies was killing their marching form.  

Matt looked like needed a break afterward.  And I love the way Lucy crawled onto
Jono like it wasn't the first time she'd seen him in almost 2 years.

Soon enough, it was getting late so the presents started to get handed out.

Present time is insanity every year.  (And I'm not even there every year!) 

Uncle Mike has been giving Life Saver books to the children since
Matt was a boy and here he is now giving them to our kids.  

All in all, it was a great evening.  But eventually we had to go and get back to Gramma's so the kids wold be asleep by the time Santa Claus stopped by.....