Christmas

This year we got to have 3 Christmases (sp?) We spent Christmas Eve with Nolan's Dad's side of the family in the early evening. We ate dinner, and visited and opened presents from his grandmother. His uncle gives a blank card to each of the guys, and each has a certain amount of money. 1 has $50 and the rest have $30. Whoever gets the $50 wins! This year, we won, and I chose the card. Oliver got books, and a train from Great Grandma Rosalee. Iliana got clothes. This Christmas was special since Iliana is the first girl born on my Father-in-law's side since Grandma Rosalee. After that we went to Nolan's parents house to spend the rest of the evening with my mother-in-law's side of the family. I love how close I've grown to all of Nolan's family. Grandma Rosalee treats me like a granddaughter. I joke and play around with his cousins. His grandma Wong is still a bit scary and intimidating. So at Nolan's parents we ate more snack type food, and then after 11pm we began to open presents. We do a name exchange with this side, but everyone gives gifts to the kids. Oliver got a big Mr. Potato Head with a whole potato family inside, a puzzle, coloring book, markers, and a Wiggles video. Iliana got a gloworm, clothes (of course), and a teddy bear. We finally got home around 1am, totally exhausted.

The next day (Christmas) we stayed home and had our own little Christmas with just us. I videoed most of the morning while trying to get over a migraine. But Oliver seemed to understand how to open presents, and had fun. Iliana of course had no idea what was going on. Santa got them both pajamas and hats and mittens. Iliana got her first holiday barbie, and Oliver got blocks and a play, musical table. After breakfast, we let Oliver eat anything he wanted. So we just relaxed and enjoyed each other all day. I decided to make a fancy dinner so we had roast beef, crab stuffed mushrooms, cheesy potatoes, and rolls. We didn't like the mushrooms very much, and the cheesy potatoes just would not turn out, and the roast didn't cook during the time the cookbook said it would. So the roast beef turned out to be pretty rare, so we cut off the ends, and continued cooking it while we began eating. The rolls were tasty. So dinner wasn't exactly a disaster, but it wasn't what I envisioned.

The next Saturday we had Christmas with my family. Since it was New Years Day we didn't start until 10am. We started with a visit from Santa Claus, who talked to each child and gave them each gift. Then we exchanged gifts among the siblings (we draw names) and gave our gifts to the children. Then we took a break (you need a break after this because there are so many of us). Then we opened gifts from Dad, who went out of control with spending this year. Mom, I think, was pretty uncomfortable with how much he spent, but he was happy with it. The whole day we spent eating since the table is just full of food. The men and children all got marshmallow guns, and so the spent part of the afternoon having a marshmallow fight outside. Afterward, the ground was covered with marshmallows. We also got to skype Rachel and Rich since they couldn't make it to California this year.

I love this time of year. It's a time to spend with family, give gifts and practice baking and cooking skills. I'm so glad that some of the out-of-towners were able to come, and sad for those who couldn't. We also got to see Jason blessed that Sunday in Kim's mom's ward, where another friend of ours also happened to be blessing their baby. So it was a 2 for 1 kind of deal.