Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve in our family is always spent with the Barri.  We gather with all those close--David and Sharon, Lee and Cammie, Craig and Monica.  This year was no different in who we were with, but we did a new fun thing with the where we gathered.  We were going to be close to 40 people, and no one has a large enough house to accommodate that many people, so David suggested we gather at the Sandy Institute, which is a church building.  There is a kitchen, a gym, a large rec room and plenty of space for all of us.  This was a great suggestion and we met there, something we may have to do every year from now on.  We arrived in Sandy at about 4:00 and stayed until 7:30.

Brandt and Blythe both loved playing with each other and cousins, though on the Barrus side of the family, almost all the kids their age are second cousins.  They did ping pong, a soccer game with marbles, pool, and ran around the gym.  We had brought some board games to play, but they were totally unnecessary.  Too much other fun stuff to do.  We had a white elephant gift exchange, dinner, and a nativity.  A good time was had by all.

I brought silly things for us to wear on our heads, because this year

that seems to be all the rage, at our house anyway.

The white elephant gift exchange was very funny.  Everyone, large and small, was able to choose a gift.  Scott, pictured below with the wicker monkey, did not have a great time.  He kept choosing things he really didn't want, then crying because they were dumb things, like wicker monkeys.  Several adults tried to help, selecting the thing he had already opened so he could choose something else, but really, even at the end, he was still crying.  My kids have expressed similar feelings of frustration, but both of them had high numbers and were able to select what they actually wanted when they could see all the options.  Brandt came away with two boxes of candy we had brought (he didn't know they were in the basement), but Blythe had the biggest score.  She stole (for the second and last time) a reindeer toy that poops brown jelly beans.  How cool is that.  She watched it closely from the time it was opened, asking repeatedly, "Is it my turn yet?"  She felt like she had won the lottery when we she was able to take it from her cousin.  She was willing to share her jelly beans with us, but somehow, I just couldn't bring myself to eat one.

Scott with his mom Mandi.

Mandi, Josh, Eric, Brooke, Amy holding Aubrey

Lee, Cammie, Aaron

Sponge Bob lip gloss!

Cindy and Matt

Micah, Becca, and Avey

David and Jack

Mi famiglia

Mandi in festive hat

Ashton (I think. This may be Aiden.)

Jack

Dinner.

We had shrimps, green bean casserole, salad, potatoes, ham, and rolls.

Apart from the shrimps, it sort of sounds like a funeral meal.

Kent, David, and Lee

They are Skyping with George.

We wish he and the Brinkerhoffs were with us.

Sharon organized a fun nativity.  While most of the adults were doing other things, she spirited away all the children, dressed them up, told them what to do.  The rest of us were invited into the breezeway to see their play.  Blythe was Mary and Brandt was a wise man.  They both did a fine job, getting into their roles and acting with expression.  

Mary is "pondering all these things in her heart."

Mary and Joseph (Ethan) are on their way to Bethlehem.

The holy family.

Here are the angels, come to tell the shepherds to go to Bethlehem to see baby Jesus.

Lizzy

Wise men, from the east, pointing to the star they will follow to the Christ child.

They are bowing down and presenting the Christ child with gifts.

Singing angels Maddie and Avey

Wise man in a fez.

Our intrepid players.

Even though it was Christmas eve and excitement was running high when we got home, the children got ready for bed and were asleep by 9:00.  This gave us enough time to make final Christmas preparations.  Blythe had put out cookies for Santa, as well as some Swedish fish and Mike&Ikes, the candy Brandt got at the white elephant gift exchange.  Blythe really wanted to leave hot chocolate for Santa too, so I promised I would make some just before we went to bed so that it would still be hot when Santa was here and ready to drink it.  I was true to my word.  

Kent and I wrapped (I never put presents under the tree before Christmas eve), was tidied up, we left the tree lit, and were in bed by eleven.  We told the children that there would only be three presents for each of them this year because our trip to San Diego the second week of January was going to count for part of Christmas.  They agreed that was fine, but in the end, there were a few more than three presents each.  I think there were five. I thought everything looked very magical as we went up to bed, and I hope the children think the same in the morning.

Look what Santa brought!