Anyone else have a busy Christmas weekend? Please tell me that your kids were hyper and unable to sleep because they were super excited for Santa’s arrival. It was a great weekend and according to my 7-year-old, the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER. Nevermind that he says that every year.
Christmas Eve we drove out to Matt’s parents house for a big family photo shoot, this was a gift for my in-laws. It is not every year that the entire family is together for the holidays. The biggest challenge was coordinating everyone’s work schedules. It seems that our family works in Health Care, Security, and Retail, which of course meant that even though it was a holiday people still had to work. But we managed to find a time that everyone could meet in Applegate. JulieAnn Photography always amazes me. She does a fabulous job. This time there were 25 of us to photograph! I was so afraid that all the guys would hate me for even suggesting professional photos, but in the end I knew we would love the results.
After the photos all of the cousins just wanted to hang out and play. A few of us decided to attend the Christmas Eve Service at Applegate Christian Fellowship. This service is held outdoors in the amphitheater. The trees are covered in lights and they have two big bonfires going to keep warm. Oh and lots of hot chocolate and hot apple cider! As I expected the amphitheater was packed. We actually had a hard time finding a place to sit. It was amazing to sit outside and reflect on the true reason for the season. The lights on the trees were beautiful but it was when they turned those lights off that things really light up. It was then that they had each of us hold a candle and they started to light them one by one as we sang ‘O Holy Night’. Yep, I cry every year at that exact moment. Seeing the amphitheater lit up with all those candles is simply breathtaking.
Once we got back to my in-laws house the children were begging to open one present. It seems Grandma and Grandpa had a few tricks up their sleeve. They allowed the kids to open not 1 but 2 presents. The first one was new pajamas and the second one was a pillow pet. Those were a big hit! All of the kids were saying how long they had been wanting a pillow pet. It was so funny! They each got a different character. Megan got a red ladybug, Owen a Moose, Hudson an Arizona Cardinal, and Ethan a Dallas Cowboy. I honestly can’t remember what all the other cousins got. Grandma and Grandpa knew what they were doing because all the kids were excited to put on their new pj’s and sleep with their pillow pets!
Getting our wild bunch to sleep proved to be a little harder. They all fell asleep on the ride home but didn’t want to go right back to sleep once we got to the house. We had all the kids sleep in the same room so they would wake up together to check out the tree on Christmas morning. I don’t put any presents under the tree before Christmas and of course they were hoping Santa would leave a few things too. The finally fell asleep around 11 PM and I know I fell asleep sometime after 12:30. Of course I kept tossing and turning because I wanted to make sure that I woke up as soon as they did so that didn’t miss their reaction to all the presents. However, I did not expect to be woken up at 4:30 AM! My first thought was to make them go back to bed. But they were so excited. Actually Ethan and Hudson were so excited. Megan and Owen on the other hand were not amused. Hudson and Ethan begin shouting Santa has been here! I asked them how they knew that and they said because the cookies are gone. But we didn’t look at the presents. Then Ethan says I hope I get a scooter. Which of course happens to be the one item that is NOT wrapped, so right then I knew they had already peeked around the tree. It was settled a very early morning it was going to be.
There is nothing sweeter than seeing the kids open all their presents. They were so excited about each one. Santa brought scooters for all the boys. Miss Megan got a little rocking horse. Their other gifts included new clothes, books, games, legos, and movies. Owen immediately started playing with his Leapfrog Text and Learn. I am sure some of you have received misspelled text from me before thanks to Owen. Now he thinks he is pretty cool with his own “phone” to push buttons and write texts all day long. Hudson immediately wanted to play his Paper Mario game for the wii. Ethan was ready to dive into all the legos. Megan just wanted to ride her rocking horse. After opening gifts it was only 5 am. Megan was ready to go back to bed and we turned on one of the new movies. I remember seeing the opening credits but fell asleep shortly after that. Ha ha!
We headed back out to Applegate in the early afternoon. The kids were able to run around outside with their cousins all day. They took turns on the mini dirt bike and quad. Ethan was allowed to drive the mini dirt bike by himself. He really liked that. The other boys went for a ride with Dad on the quad. Actually Owen almost ran me over as I was trying to get a picture. Matt asked him if he was ready to go and instead of saying yes, Owen hit the gas. Not that I am surprised. We had a fabulous Christmas dinner and a great time was had by all. By 7:30 I was in bed for the night.
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