Christmas 2010

This year we had a quiet Christmas. I was glad for that because I have had (am still having) a very stressful year. I won't say I have been stressed out; I have really been trusting God, but all the same I did want to kick back as much as possible and having a quiet year turned out to be a blessing. I love, love, love getting together with my sister's family and really look forward to doing that next year if we are in our new home. We *should* be barring any complications, which seem to keep rearing their ugly heads.

First, on December 19, our children were in a church play. Briton was a shepherd, the girls were angels, and Cooper and Austin were kids. I was impressed to see that my two boys had their lines learned completely, while others had scripts hidden. All that memory work they have practiced with their verses has come in handy!

Then when Colt came home on December 23rd, Ray, Colt, and Dane headed to the land to try out the snow mobile. The rest of us stayed home as there was much to do!! I have to say that this was the best year for getting things done! My troop of workers were amazing!

 Cooper and Briton peeled enough potatoes to feed an army, since my mum and dad were coming, as well as our ten.

 Savannah Cleaned Out the Pantry.

 Cassidy the Baker

Cassidy baked three cakes and helped build two trifles and one black forest cake, as well as doing multiple other cooking prep jobs.

 Raine was My Gopher. 

 Team Work

 Washing Dishes, Vegetables and Baking

Savannah and Briton Helped With Baking

And of Course, the Younger Ones Went Sledding

 Christmas Eve

To begin the evening all of the children got dressed up in beautiful clothes. I cannot believe that I did not take pictures! The girls looked gorgeous in their Ethiopian clothes and gold and white hair beads. The boys were very handsome in their get-up.

We had a wonderful hour of singing Christmas carols and listening to songs sung in foreign languages. We also heard the Christmas story as read from the book of Luke in the Bible. This was finished off nicely with goodies and hot chocolate after the service.

From here we came home and the children helped tidy up the house and then got their pajamas on. They all settled into bed, with the exception of the big kids. Once I was certain that they were well settled Cassidy and Dane went and stood at the two bedroom doors. Upon my signal they burst open the doors and called out, "Merry Christmas!"

The poor little kids were so confused, *laugh*, that they didn't know what to do! They thought their brothers were playing tricks on them. It didn't take Savannah long to hop out of bed and hit the stairs running once they told them they could come downstairs!

They all gathered on the couch and waited to see what was up. It is funny that they had forgotten from all the other years that we do Christmas Eve gift giving with the children's gifts, plus the out of town gifts, and then from Ray to me and vice versa!

Probably the best present of all. Dishes, crockery, pans, cutlery, aprons. Imagination fun time!

 

 Briton Gets the Firetrucks He Was Wanting

 Miss Savannah Gets a Hat and Stole For Dress-Up

(Mind you, I did find her sledding in it a few days later! lol Only Savannah!)

 Dane Vying For Savannah's Hat

 Cooper Happy With His PS2 Game

(We still have the old PS2 from when our oldest boys were about 8 and 10 years old! So now we can get games that are really cheap! Unfortunately it is getting harder to find them now the PS3 is out there!)

I played a trick on the boys and girls. I gave the big boys a large parcel to unwrap, and then I gave the little ones some small parcels to unwrap. I had put them backwards. Dane and Cassidy and Austin opened the Playmobil and played the part of all excited!

 Meanwhile, my confused younger children looked with polite smiles at their DS games. Perhaps wondering if there was a DS coming? Not likely. So they looked over at what their brothers had received. And this is the reaction they saw...

 Oh, So Pleased to Get Playmobil Africa

 I told the kids if they could come to an agreement then perhaps they could switch gifts. Cassidy and Austin were quick to say yes, since they own DS handheld gamesters, but Dane wasn't so sure. He decided to hang on to the Playmobil. He was in a lose situation if he switched. He didn't own a DS, but he could play with the toys. He decided to hang on. That is until Cooper tackled him. He finally gave in.

The night finished about 11:30 pm and the children headed off to bed, with goodies in their tummies, new toys in piles, and excited thoughts of what the next day would bring.

 Christmas Day

My parents live near to us and it is always nice to have them over for Christmas. For over 30 years my mother is the one that hosted Christmas. We immigrated from England and my Grandparents lived in England with the rest of our family. So we grew up with only ourselves for Christmas. Then my parents moved far away from us and we would go to their house for Christmas.

Once we moved here we began sharing putting on the event. Once our family increased to the size that it is and my sister had her two children, it was obvious that my parents house couldn't house the clan anymore. That must have been a hard adjustment for my mum, who had always put such effort into the occasion. So now we try to get them involved by putting in their efforts on the dinner. Like I tell my mum, we all have something to bring to the dinner that makes it special.

There is NO way that I am planning on *running* the Christmas dinner when I have so many children!! No way. I will host it, yes, but my sons and wives and daughters and husbands will all be part and party to the putting on of what will eventually turn into a huge number of people! lol

 My Dad Helping With the Turkey

 Grandad and Cooper

 My Three Big Sons

 My children all love Curious George. When I found this anthology at Costco, I knew I had to buy it!  It was a big hit with Cooper, and it came with an hour long audio cd of the stories as well.

 Police Stuff!! 

Cooper has been saving his money and buying bits and pieces for the Playmobil police set.

This was so funny! Briton wanted a present for himself, so he decided since the present I handed him to give to Grandad did not have a written tag, that he could write his own name. He did. Then Grandad told him he could help him open his gift. Briton began opening the gift - saw inside and said, "Ohhh!"

Then he realized what it was and in joking disgust said to my dad, "Clothes! You have 'em," and tossed the present to my dad. Boy, did we bust out laughing. That boy is going to be a comedian!

 My sister sent Christmas presents with Colt when he came home. Dane opened his wrapping to find this pretty box. Check out his face. He was dying laughing. I am certain she deliberately picked this box for that boy. What a joke. At least there was no tutu inside the box! It was a nice American Eagle shirt. lol

At the end of the night when the children were done opening gifts I surprised my mum with a black forest birthday cake. Her birthday is going to be December 31 - New Years Ever - but I know they always go out that night, so I thought this would be a good way to surprise her. And it did!

 But the surprises weren't over for the night. When the younger children were all in bed - about 1:00 am - we called the big boys into the kitchen to tidy up the late night dishes. As they were working I held up an envelope to Dane asking him if it was his because it had his name on it. He opened it and grinned.

At first he thought it was coupons to some music cds he wanted to buy. But after studying it for a while he suddenly realized what it was: excellent seating for him, his dad, and his brother, Colt, at the upcoming Bon Jovi concert in the Big City. It is an early graduation gift, plus thank you for working on our family home.

He was beyond pleased. He had wanted to buy tickets and had told us when they went on sale. I nonchalantly asked him if they were on Ray. I then gave Ray 'the eye' as he sat at the other end of the table. He was *supposed* to know that the eye meant 'go online and see if the tickets are for sale'. Of course, he had no clue. So then I said, "Are you done on your computer?" And reached over and helped myself to the computer he was still using. I am sure I confused the boys with my not-so-polite behaviour. lol Ray being the nice guy didn't complain. I then sat down and punched in Bon Jovi concert and came up with the information.

Okay, so it was out there. Now I had to get Ray to the office to buy tickets without gathering suspicion. The boys and I were playing a game, so I just shut Ray's computer, handed it to him, and asked if he was done with it he could put it in the office. I was seriously not obvious (lol!)

The boys made a comment that, Dad was finished now because I had taken the computer. lol Ray finally got the hint, took the computer and secreted himself in the office, went online, found the venue, chose our seating and made the purchase. It turned out this all was on the night they went on sale.

Weeks later, Dane tried to see about tickets. I tried to keep him away from the computer. Ray said to check out and see what was left. I did. There were $23.00 seats behind the stage in the nosebleed section near the roof. I told this to Dane to stop him from buying himself a ticket. That boy was determined to get to that concert even though it would cost him $150 in bus fare to get there, plus how was he going to maneuver the Big City on his own!

So you can imagine, when Dane found he had 10th row seats in the lower section he was very pleased!  Now if I could be a fly on the wall. That music takes me back to my teen years!

So that was our Christmas and it was a very nice one!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and wish you all a Happy New Year!
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