Christmas Eve 2010

A new Nativity Story puppet set from awesome Aunt Jo-ja.  This is definitely becoming a permanent tradition from now on.  It came with a great story and songs.

We got lucky and Gramma Mary's 1 night stay turned into a 4 day visit.  So fun right before Christmas!  She helped us with many last minute Christmas projects.  They even took us to dinner and the movie Tangled all together.  (Expensive for our family of 9.)  We pretty much had the theater to ourselves, so that was nice for Molly to wander around.  Except the one time she wandered to the one other family sitting in back, and tried drinking their drinks.  I don't think I've ever been to dinner and a movie before in the same night.  And the Boise State/Utah Bowl game was on while we were at Pizza Hut.  (We don't have TV so we never get to watch games live.)  It was fun!  And with Gramma Mary, a visit from her usually includes a trip to the Dollar Store too.  Gramma's still recovering from her broken sternum.  She did a back flip over the couch at Thanksgiving with other grandkids, and her sternum broke.  I guess she's just not as young as she used to be.  4 weeks later, it still hurts her to laugh.

With 9 families to send Christmas pajamas too, this was one unfortunate year where they didn't quite arrive on time in the mail.  So at the last minute, I went to plan B, and found the closest, cheapest backup plan I could.  Prosser Mustang Baseball T-shirts on clearance.  They worked just fine for Christmas!  Everyone wore different pajama bottoms, from past Christmases.  The above picture taken with Gramma right before they left Christmas Eve morning shows a bunch of other old Christmas PJs too.  (Except Hanna's and Yeon's.  They sewed those themselves this week.)
  

  After having a fun Christmas Eve dinner at our good friends' home, we still had many Christmas Eve traditions we wanted to do before bed. (Including the new Nativity Puppets above.)  Molly was SOOO tired.  We kept her up way too late.  She was trying to smile through tears.  What a trooper.  One thing that worked out well though:  since we all stayed up past midnight the night before watching movies, everyone was already pretty tired by the time the kids actually got in bed that night.  Were we the only family where the kids fell asleep FAST on Christmas Eve this year?  Unbelievable.  Maybe staying up late Dec 23 should be a new tradition too.  (Last year on Christmas Eve, Troy gave them each a can of Pepsi around 9 pm, leftover from when someone else had come to visit.  We're NOT making that a tradition.)

Gramma has knitted EVERYONE of her kids and grandkids (plus several extra friends and extended family) these matching Christmas socks.  They're great, because they stretch and can fit a lot of loot from Santa inside.  Each one takes her about 8 hours.  She even made one for Yeon this year.  I don't know exactly how many socks she's made, but I know at least 70 over the years.  Probably more.  (5,600+ hours of knitting.)  She is amazing!  I want to learn how, so all my grandkids can have them too one day.

Molly's stand-in stocking looks just like the ones I had in my family growing up.  The plain, traditional, mass produced ones.  We have a few we keep on hand, for when we have visitors for Christmas.

                                                

When the real pajamas (and Molly's Stocking) arrived in the mail, I was in Wyoming all by myself.  (My first quick trip alone to see my family.  My youngest sister bought 2 of us other sisters plane tickets, to surprise our dad for his 60th birthday.  It was so fun!  I hope I can do that again.)  Troy wanted to clean up the Christmas stuff while I was gone.  I wanted to leave them up 'til the middle of January!  I love the tree and lights.  But I relented and let them pack them up--as long as they took a picture first!  Of all 9 Christmas Stocking together, and of the REAL 2010 Christmas pajamas by the tree.  (It was nice to come home and not have to clean it myself though, I have to admit.)

Elf Boots from Grandpa Bob and Grandma Monali.  Monali made all of these too, that came stuffed with candy. 


Since I wasn't here to run the camera, I wasn't there to insist on Yeon being in the picture.  She didn't want to be in the picture, but I would have insisted on it!  (Molly had a mouth full of candycane the whole time.)  It's tradition to take a bunch of silly pictures in the Christmas pajamas.  I love the monkey pajamas and the great longjohns too!

 

I can't see all 9 stockings well here, (not sure who took this pic) so I might just go and unpack them, set them up again, and take another picture.  It's the only time I'll have 7 children for Christmas and 9 total matching stockings in a row.  (Must look a bit like Troy's family growing up.  He has 9 kids in his family.)