Christmas Activities

Omer Christmas Dinner:  Instead of having our get together on Christmas Eve, we had it the Sunday before on the 21st.  It was up in Kaysville and there were a lot of people there.  Scott had to work, but he was able to head over afterwards in time for dessert and the gift exchange.  We had a ham dinner and we didn't start eating until an hour after it should have, so it got hard to keep Kylie happy as she was hungry.  It was fun to see Kylie actually start interacting and playing with Marley.  In the past, she would just run up to her and then turn away, but this time they were chasing each other around the house.  After dinner and dessert, we went downstairs and first had a short musical program.  After the music, we dived into the white elephant presents. There were some fun ones passed around and we didn't end up awful like last time.  We came away with hand warmers, silly string and these foam rockets.  Since there's so many people, it became a late night and Kylie got restless and fussy, but it was still wonderful to see my family. I do look forward to it every year.

Christmas Eve:  We didn't do much during the day except get ready for a dinner with my family that night.  I was in charge of making the funeral potatoes and a dessert.  When we went shopping the day before, Wal-Mart was completely out of frozen hash browns and no way was I going to grate up real ones.  Scott suggested using tater tots and smashing them up.  It actually worked out deliciously!  I also only had a little bit of bread crumbs, so I combined them with ground up Ritz crackers and it worked out great!  I also made these super yummy Oreo White Chocolate Pudding Peppermint Cookies.  I saw them and said that I am making these no matter what and I am glad that I did.  Everyone loved them, including Scott who isn't so into treats.  We took some cookies and passed them around to our neighbors.  I hoped they enjoyed them as well.  Dinner was yummy and we did a little program after.  We played a few songs with these bells my mom has and then we read some scriptures about the Nativity.  We then tried to sing Christmas songs, but no one was really that into it.  We just wanted to hear Grandma Omer play them instead.  My mom gave us a few Christmas Eve gifts and then we headed home since Scott had to work early the next morning.  Before dinner, we exchanged our own Christmas Eve gifts to each other.  This year, everyone received pajamas.  The Christmas Eve gift doesn't always have to be pajamas, but it does have to be something related to sleep (new pillows, bed, sheets, etc.). Kylie got Rapunzel ones and she loves them.

Christmas Day: Scott and I didn't sleep very well, so we were able to open stockings together before he went to work. I am so glad that he worked the morning shift, but it did make the day feel like a normal day and not like Christmas.  I had planned on making a special breakfast, but ended up just giving Kylie some banana bread from visiting teachers the night before (good timing!), yogurt and grapes.  When Kylie went down for a nap, I just watched TV until she woke back up.  We had lunch and then Scott came home from work.  The first present we showed her was the kitchen and play room downstairs.  She wasn't super interested in it until we started opening doors and showing her what the kitchen had.  After that, she loved playing with it the rest of the day.  We took the poor girl away to open some more presents and she wasn't very interested in unwrapping any of them.  Kylie did love each present when we unwrapped it for her.  Around 2pm my family showed up and Brianna and Kyle opened their presents from dad.  About half an hour later, mom, Aaron and Mike showed up.  From everyone, Kylie came away with a nice Frozen stash.  She loved every single Frozen thing she received.  Things were pretty chill after that.  Everyone was gone by 6:30-7:00 and I was glad as we still had to pack!  We spent the rest of the night getting everything ready for our trip.  Christmas was wonderful and we received so many wonderful gifts are are grateful for all of them.  The Christmas holiday is one of my favorites.

Her Frozen stash. Missing is an ornament and a blanket.