Merry Christmas!

Yesterday we had our family gift exchange. The gifts the kids get each other from AWANA are always a surprise to me (although Oliver had already told me he got me a candle, ha ha). Nadia gave me white gloves, and Ian gave me a Christmas oven mitt. Nadia and Oliver each gave Paul a small tool (such as a pair of pliers), and Ian gave him a small flashlight. Nadia bought gifts for eight people this year - a large collection of earrings for Susie, stuffed animal for Grace, etc. We gave Ian and Nadia each a Lego set, and they built them yesterday afternoon. My dad and brother arrived around 5pm yesterday. I made beef stew for them, but since Nadia and Ian really don't like beef stew, I also picked up one pizza to make our Christmas Even dinner special for them also. My dad joined us at our church's 7:00 candlelight service, and about an hour after the kids went to bed my sister and her family arrived from Chicago. Oliver enjoyed sharing his bedroom with Grandpa, and Nadia enjoyed having Rachel and Susie sleep in her bedroom with her. The other four Benners plus my brother slept down in the living room and family room.

As you can see from the picture at right, one of Oliver's gifts was a bag of Peanut Butter cups. He has been very generous and has shared them with siblings, his Daddy, Uncle Maurice, and cousins.  This morning I made eggnog French toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon. There was a little bit of French toast left, but everything else I made was consumed by the thirteen of us. Our current church wasn't having a traditional service this morning, so we attended our previous church's 10:30 service. They served cookies, muffins, fudge, etc. prior to the service so we postponed our dinner a little since everyone wasn't very hungry when we got home. We had our gift exchange with Grandpa and the Benners and then ate our Christmas dinner. We had ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberries, pineapple, and pumpkin cranberry bread. Oliver kept asking for potatoes for Christmas and so I made three types of potatoes for dinner. We waited a few hours before having our dessert.

I put one candle in each of the four pies, and four kids helped blow out the candles after we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Naturally we really missed my mom today as it was our first without her. I thought I would cry when we were singing Happy Birthday, but I didn't, but I did have one little meltdown when preparing the Christmas dinner.

After enjoying pie and cookies, several of us watched the Steelers play the Ravens. My dad and I had asked for Steelers win for a Christmas gift because it would mean the Steelers would win the division and go to the Playoffs. The game was stressful to the last 14 seconds, but we won!!! The Giants lost on Thursday night, but they are also going to the Playoffs.

The picture at left shows the stuffed animal that Nadia bought for Grace. I'm enjoying using my new camera body and also have been using one of Wendy's lenses to help me decide if that's a lens I might want in the future. Nadia got a ceiling fan for her bedroom from Grandpa, which is something she had been asking for for a long time. Her room is always colder than the
rest of the rooms in the house in the winter and warmer than the rooms in the rest of the house in the summer. Years ago we had an electrician install ceiling light fixtures in three bedrooms (the master bedroom already had a ceiling fan when we bought the house) and also the living room. In the living room and what is now Oliver's bedroom we had put in ceiling fans. In Nadia and Ian's rooms we had only put in light fixtures (since they were cheaper than ceiling fans). In hind sight, I wish we had just gotten ceiling fans for all four rooms, but I had no idea back then we'd be living here this many years. I thought we'd only live here for 3-4 years. Ian doesn't mind the temperature in his bedroom so he doesn't need a ceiling fan, but Nadia sleeps on top of her sheets in the summer because it's too hot in her bedroom. She will greatly appreciate having a ceiling fan in her room next summer! Her present definitely was the heaviest box opened today. Ian's gift of three Rogue One figures (see photo later in the post) was definitely the largest box. Oliver's largest box was one
containing a ladderball game from Grandpa, and Grace was the other one who received a large box. Hers contained a hopscotch mat (seen at left). The funniest moment was when Drayton opened his gift from my Dad (seen at left). One of his kids put that mood lamp on his wish list, and my Dad purchased it for him (not realizing Drayton hadn't actually requested it). We all got a kick out of that! It was quite the change from the socks my mom always used to get him every year.

My Dad gave each member of our family different restaurant gift cards (Wendy's, Olive Garden, Subway, etc.), and we will look forward to using those over the coming year! I always enjoy having a night off from cooking now and then. We promised the kids a trip to Friendly's once Oliver learns his numbers. We miss my mom and Yvonne's family, but I'm grateful for the three days the thirteen of us can spend together.

Playing a game that Wendy gave Maurice for Christmas

Grandpa bought these in Chicago for Ian when he was out there at Thanksgiving.

Watching a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie on Saturday morning (waiting for Daddy to come home from work)