Family Fridays: A Very Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas together as a family on Sunday. The night before, I had made a breakfast tray with pumpkin bread, cinnamon rolls, and strawberries and also filled all the boys stocking with granola bars and boxes of milk (in addition to a few extra treats), so we could snack on breakfast as we wished throughout the morning. Andrew was a bit surprised to find more than one item in his stocking since we have been just opening one small present each night throughout December.

First, we talked to our extended families on Skype. The boys had lots of fun opening stockings and presents from the grandparents, and so did we. Then we did some reading and singing as a family. Afterward, we opened presents as a family.

My sweet hubby got me tons of really good chocolate and made a private picture gallery website to view our family pictures more easily. We're going to work on what we want to all do with it together, but it will be an awesome way to share more pictures privately with close friends and family. The boys had great fun opening their small gifts from us as well.

Then we had an unexpected visitor stop by, a high school student who likes to come by and talk to Nate but whom we hadn't heard from in months. The timing of it worked out well, though. We were able to give him some cookies and cocoa, and Nate talked to him for a little bit before he had to go back to school for his Sunday evening classes.

In the evening, we went to a friend's house for a great potluck dinner. I must say I have never had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, as well as cold duck, spicy lotus root, and rice porridge all for Christmas dinner before, but it was delicious and fun.

After we got back, we let the boys do their treasure hunt for their last big presents from us. It was fun watching Aaron and Andrew trying to follow the clues all over the house to find the presents at the end. It is so funny because Aaron could read the clues so easily but had such a hard time finding them sometimes even though they were almost all completely out in the open. But eventually they found their way to the end and discovered two great big books: a collection of classic Pooh tales and a collection of classic Thomas tales, one for each boy. We read to them for a while and then listened to Aaron read a little, and then collapsed into bed.