Happy Christmas Eve! What a busy start to this fun day--I am utterly wiped out as I am typing this during naptime! Today was always bound to be a crazy day for me, as we have lots going on and Jared is working until midday (we hope-he technically should have a full work day, but they always send them home early). I got up this morning at 6:15 to brave Walmart in order to get our Christmas breakfast items, as well as things for a last minute craft I hadn't planned yet. I got back home in time to get Jared off to work at 7:30 and to get started on my huge to-do list. I did the dishes; sanitized the kitchen; got gluten free cupcakes into the oven; put together a manger craft; packed up all the items we would need to take to the family party (holy packing batman!); got all the kids up/breakfasted/dressed/nursed; and wrapped cousin/family presents. We only left for our family Christmas party 10 minutes late-could have been worse. It became worse when I realized we went to the wrong building. We ended up finally getting there 20-25 minutes late....sigh. Oh well, it was the best I could do as a single mother trying to prep a ton of stuff on my own with 6 kids running around. In any case, I was super happy to be going to our family party! We didn't have everyone there, but it was still a blast, and I ended up really enjoying myself despite low expectations without Jared there.
This is not in order. :) We did the Nativity as pictured above-Sara got to be a shepherd this year and James actually kept his ears on for about 5 minutes (which is 5 minutes longer than I was expeting-I had to bribe him with chocolate chips though).
We played the short version of the candy bar game, which was perfect timing-wise; I actually thought that was pretty fun, and Sara caught on pretty well, I barely had to help her. We made the craft I planned, which was inspired by the craft our kids made the night before at the Hanson's holiday party! I was super happy with how it turned out-tweaked it just a bit, and it was super cute-super! Suzie did a lovely little family home evening segment, and Jordan was paying rapt attention the entire time. JD and Karianna colored throughout, but so it goes. We had the cousin gift exchange ,and all the kids were psyched with getting and giving presents from/to the cousins-I love that part, I love getting them involved in the giving. I forgot to bring JD's present from Samantha-left it at home since they gave it to him early. He was sad, but he got to open the reindeer poop that Grandma Erickson brought, and he enjoyed that (which made me question his sanity).
We chowed down on snacks, and I was so grateful that pretty much everything was gluten free-JD was a happy camper with that one! I think the favorite item was pudding with various toppings including gummy worms.
A crazy, busy morning, and we didn't get home until close to 2:00, but it was great, great fun, and I really enjoyed hanging out with family! Now, time to snag a quick, 30 minute nap before the festivities continue!
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