Christmas Eve Report

Hi. I'm going back in time to give the full report of Christmas Eve. If I actually wrote this all on Christmas Eve, it would have been written after 3:30 am on Christmas Day, cause that's when the day officially ended with this final photo -

So, this is how our Christmas Eve went. Corey told me the night before that he wanted to take the kids out to lunch and then to a movie. He told the children of his plans also, because it would require just a bit of planning/effort on their part. aka- they would need to get up earlier than usual for a "winter break" morning because of my one pre-condition to their outing - that the house be clean. So they started to wake up at 9 and most were alive and moving by 9:30 and they went to work tidying things up. They were done shortly after 11:30. The movie tickets were for 12:30, so they hurried out the door. They didn't have a lot of time at Chuck a Rama, but they still went and hurried and stuffed their faces for 30 minutes.

Then over to the theater where they were a little late to the movie "Wreck It Ralph Breaks the Internet". They said it was weird. They didn't get back until like 2:30, and we were supposed to be up in Layton at 3, so I thought they'd want to hurry out the door for that, but Hyrum had to do his shopping for his sibling secret Santa, so he and Corey left and were gone for another hour. So we were late to the Wride family Christmas Eve party, but got there around 5:20. Everyone was waiting for us and was ready to eat.

Taco bar.

Natalie went straight for the hot cocoa.

She stirred it with the peppermint candy cane and was delighted to see it get skinnier and pokey-er

After dinner we had the annual Talent Show.

I took videos of their performances but won't put them all here except for the link - First Abi played her piano numbers - same from her piano recital a week ago.

Lily played the sax.

Our kids weren't all in order, the cousins did numbers in between our kids. Melodie on flute.

Wes sang some bad karaoke

Natalie sang Jingle Bells

Oh, and of course Daniel wanted a turn with the microphone!! His back up singers were going crazy with energy, egging him on, and he finally caught the vibe 4 minutes into his performance and gave them the dancing moves they were hoping for.

Sophia on violin

Corey put a saxophone neck strap on Owen and everyone was pressuring him to go sing, at which time his body went limp and he layed on Corey's lap unable to function. Going limp was something Mel used to do when she was a toddler. Looks like Owen won't be performing after all. He stayed limp until Corey took off the neck strap, funny kid.

The kids signed up Corey, so he did a number, and Ethan joined him for a few measures.

Then Ethan did his own number

And then next in the program was a nativity narration of Luke 2. Lily started off dressed to be a shepherd, but jumped in to the Mary role when the opportunity presented itself. Cousin Isaac is Joseph. A stuffed bear was Baby Jesus

Abi as a wise man.

After the nativity, the kids were quiet so Corey's parents shared a few words as well as him and his siblings, then a family prayer, and then the kids were ready to get crazy with the Saran Wrap game.

Uncle Mark had prepared two balls and we divided the kids into two groups.

Group 1 finished unwrapping their ball first, and Wesley won the coveted center of the ball  - a $5 bill

Lily won the $5 of the second group

Pretty exciting! Money!! They all scored some pretty sweet holiday gear and treats. 

Hyrum modeling his new scarf.

Ethan had Owen hold all the things he unwrapped, and then Owen wouldn't share with him. So sad, but Eth took the injustice like a champ.

Group pic!

We had a good time and were headed home around 8:30. Got home around 9:30. Corey went to pick up presents from the North Pole, the kids stayed up late watching Home Alone, Corey and I put Owen and Daniel to bed and then we went to bed around 12:30. Everyone else was still up. I set my alarm to wake up at 2:25 to get the gifts out of the car.

I peeked out down the stairs. Lights were out except for the tree, no one was stirring. Kids were all asleep around the tree, their tradition.

My first action was to take phones away and unplug Hyrum's alarm clock. I didn't know what time his alarm was set for, I only knew that it was set. And I didn't want it to go off at 3 or anything while I was at work, so yeah, that had to go. Then I got rid of the carrots, cookies and ricemilk (didn't eat them, just put stuff back in the fridge). 2:45 am and I started to bring in the presents. I had them all in the house by 3, all under the tree at 3:10, and then I did the stockings. Those were done at 3:30. Then took pictures. That means I'm able to to to back to bed at 3:40. Yay. I let Corey sleep, cause he had done almost all the shopping this year and did all the wrapping too. So I was glad to do a little bit to pull my share.

The lights at the top of the tree burned out this year. Time for a new tree? I is pre-strung, so I might try to fix it on top, but will do that next year.