Christmas Morning

 Our Christmas morning wasn't quite as merry as previous years. Samuel was acting a little strange the evening of Christmas Eve. He just went to bed and said he was really tired. Nathan had been sick the week before, so I was a little suspicious, and sure enough he woke up feeling pretty awful on Christmas morning. Had I known that he was sick, I wouldn't have let Nathan wake everyone up at 6:00am. They were all sound asleep at 5:45 until Nathan's alarm went off at 5:55, ha!

I gave Sam some Tylenol hoping it would perk him up, but he definitely had a lousy morning. Poor Kid! I felt so bad for him.

His poor little sick smile. 

Even though he was feeling sick, he told us he wanted us to continue with our plans, so we started with stockings. 

There aren't any big surprises in their stockings- underwear, socks, and candy are standard. They also all got a watch and some sort of card game or book.

The kids filled stockings for Matt and me this year. They got me a notepad, pens, chocolate, and fuzzy socks. 

Matt got new Roku remotes, a sunglasses strap, new headlamps, and a wallet. 

Then we moved on to gifts. Samuel went first, but after his first present, he needed a break. 

Elisabeth asked for a new tablet and bluetooth keyboard. She was thrilled. 

She also got a new basketball and a craft kit.

Nathan was the toughest kid to buy for this year. We got him a Steam gift card to buy a new computer game, a roller coaster book, a new Bible, and a zip string. 

Katherine hit the jackpot with presents. She didn't receive anything especially big, so she got several smaller things: Barbies, "sports" clothes, a new board game, books, a science kit, and a penguin squishmallow. 

I spotted the penguin stuffed animal at WinCo, and sent Nathan on a secret mission to purchase it and take it out to the car without her knowing. Big kids sure are helpful!

Matt gifted me a beautiful necklace

And we gave him a digital picture frame for his office and a new jacket. 

Finally, Sam's meds kicked in enough that he asked to open the rest of his presents. The very first thing he opened was the new CatKid Comic Club book. He immediately read the entire thing before opening the next gift, ha!

He also received a wood carving kit, a bionic hand nerf launch kit, and a proejctor. 

Nathan tested out his zip string while I cooked breakfast. 

We enjoyed our traditional homemade waffle and bacon breakfast. We also promised Samuel a redo Christmas breakfast as soon as he was feeling better. 

After breakfast, we opened the final gifts under the tree which were a series of clues leading to hidden presents/more clues. 

When the kids solved their first puzzle, they found the location of a gift. When they opened that gift, they found....a passport! We had been teasing the kids for weeks that all they were receiving for Christmas were passports for our upcoming cruise. Four passports are not cheap! They just blew us off, so when they opened those after all their work solving puzzles, their reactions were pretty funny. 

But the passports also held more puzzles to solve for a final reveal. 

Poor Samuel was pretty much out of commission for the puzzle solving, which led to some frustrations all around since the puzzles were too difficult for only three siblings. Samuel is our puzzle master. 

He did try his best to solve the Sudoku, but he brain was not firing at full capacity. 

Math and puzzles on Christmas morning, doesn't that just scream homeschool family, ha!

Finally after a group effort and some parental hints, they were able to solve all the puzzles. 

The final surprises were descriptions of the three shore excursions we chose for our upcoming cruise in the Spring. 

The favorite was sloth hugs and ziplining! We can't wait for May! Experience gifts are better than toys any day (and our kids still received tons of toys too!)

They also opened one last joint gift- a new sled. We're hoping to get to use it this winter!

We spent the morning playing with the new gifts. We played Katherine's Juicy Fruits game, opened and assembled all the things and got ready for the rest of the day. Even with a sick boy, we sure treasured the memories and traditions that make Christmas morning such a special day. 

Christmas Eve

 Our Christmas Eve started with a candlelight service at church. These four wore their Christmas best. 

The candlelight service is such a sweet tradition to center our hearts on Christ in the midst of a hectic season. 

After church we came home and let the kids open the gifts they bought for each other. In the past, we've taken the kids to Dollar Tree to buy a gift for each of their siblings. After last year, they mentioned being a little burnt out on Dollar Tree gifts. This year, they each drew a sibling's name and only bought one gift with a larger budget. 

Nathan was so excited to gift Katherine a miniature pengy. I think he was more excited about giving it to her than his own gifts. 

Samuel drew Elisabeth's name. I took him shopping, and he was having the hardest time until he spotted the perfect gift. 

She was thrilled. He knows her well!

Katherine gave Samuel a rabbit Lego set. He had seen it at the store (after she bought it for him) and asked for it for Christmas list. I don't think he had any idea that he'd receive it as a sibling present. 

Finally, Nathan opened his present from Elisabeth. She gave him an expansion to his Planet Zoo computer game but disguised it really well. 

Another Christmas Eve tradition is the kids get to open a joint present that's always a new board game, and then we spend the day playing games. This year we gave them Challengers as their new game. It's a deck building tournament style game and was really fun. It's a struggle sometimes to find quality board games for six players and varying ages. This one hit the bullseye!

Samuel immediately built his rabbit after the present opening was finished. 

We enjoyed spaghetti and ravioli for lunch, and then the Millers came over to play board games for the afternoon while the kids played together. 

The girl fell asleep early in the evening. Looking back now it was a foreshadowing of what was to come. 

Samuel asked to play Seafarers Settlers of Catan so we played that Christmas Eve night. 

Then we put the kids to bed and set up for Christmas morning. 

Christmas tree lights just hit different on Christmas Eve. 

Neighborhood Christmas Celebrations

 As we prepared for Christmas this year, we added in some fun activities with our favorite neighbors. Of course we had to do some baking for the activities. The girls made a list of treats they wanted to bake. They're getting so big and independent. 

We made oreo balls, chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, reindeer food, fudge, and decorated sugar cookies.

Baking Christmas cookies with these Sweeties gets easier and more fun every year. 

On the Friday evening before Christmas, the Pashkovets hosted a neighborhood Christmas concert. All the kids prepared pieces to perform. 

They started the evening by reciting the Christmas story. 

Then they each performed their individual pieces. 

Katherine learned how to play We Wish You a Merry Christmas on the piano. 

Then she sang "For God So Loved the World." She learned that song in Sunday school this year, and sings it all the time. We even asked her teacher for the sheet music and recording, so she could play it at home. 

Elisabeth also taught herself to play Jingle Bells on the piano.

And she and Nathan performed "Silent Night."

Nathan also played "Angels We Have Heard on High" on the guitar. 

Samuel played "Up On the Housetop" on the piano

Elisabeth, Ilona, and Leon wrote a funny song to the tune of Up on the Housetop. They did a great job!

The Grand Finale of the night was the kids singing the Candy Cane song all together. 

Then we all shared Christmas memories and traditions as a group and snacked on some treats. 

The kids stayed and played afterward. 

It was such a sweet night of fellowship. Erica commented that it felt like a Hallmark movie, and I agree! We've been blessed with the sweetest neighbors/best friends. 

The next night, we met together again for a casual dinner at our house. We set all the treats out for dessert. 

I planned a little Christmas game for the kids. 

The Millers stayed later and we played some board games before saying goodnight. These Christmas traditions with these friends who are closer than family are such precious traditions.