Today is the for real Christmas Eve, and we gathered this morning to be with the DeMartinis for breakfast and cousin gift exchange. I made the children help wrap presents while I finished up breakfast contribution food prep. They are getting very good at wrapping. We didn't do much different than most past years. We ate a delicious breakfast--eggs, bacon, sausage, quiche, sweet breads, fruit, juice, chocolate milk--and followed it up with gift exchange. We were delighted to have Bryan and his kids with us, a first in many, many years. We also watched the Church's new video, The Christ Child. It is incredibly beautiful and made us all cry. We've watched it several times, and every time, I cry.
All the grandchildren, though all aren't happy.
Kal clearly does not want to be in the picture, and Nico is only interested in the gun.
We spent quite a bit of time at Christopher and Tysen's playing with cousins, then came home for some Christmas Eve prep. We invited Richard and Gonzalo Jaramillo (in our ward and recently displaced by the fire) to join us for dinner. Gonzalo is a talker and recounted several very inspiring stories about his conversion and family history. When we had finished dinner, we watched A Christmas Story which neither Richard nor Gonzalo had seen. We convinced the children to go to bed at a reasonable hour, then Kent and I finished up Christmas wrapping. For having not very much money, I think we did okay with gifts. We, too, went to bed at a reasonable hour so Santa could come.
All in readiness.
This picture was taken at 11:11pm, as we were turning out lights to go to bed.
Our tree looks puny because it is.
We're economizing in all sorts of ways.
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