Christmas Celebrations

One of our Christmas Eve traditions that started when mom was growing up, is to have Waffles, with strawberries and whip cream, sausage, eggs, bacon, eggnog, and orange juice, for dinner.

It usually takes about an hour to make enough waffles for everyone because we only have one waffle iron, so this year mom, and Stephen went and bought 3 more, and with all 4 going we had 17 hot waffles in about 15 minutes.
Dad called during dinner, and we discussed girl names for the baby, we couldn't agree on any so we had to stop, but a few we came up with were: Clarissa, Elisabeth, Eliza, Ruby, Alexis, and Catherine.
After dinner everyone opened a present and we all played with the games we had gotten.





On Christmas morning, we had our traditional: Cinnamon rolls, eggs, and cocoa with whip cream, then after an hour of everyone getting dressed and ready, we opened our presents.

















About a month before Christmas everyone draws a name of who to buy presents for, and this year I had Kenneth- Lee.
He loves to draw, paint, and color, so I got him: Markers, 72 different colored pencils, paint brushes, two books full of graphing paper, and a metal chest to put it all in.





When all the presents had been opened, we played games, and tried out our new gifts for a few hours, before our friends the Bryans came over.




Everyone had a great time of playing: Catch Phrase, Dominoes, and Cosmic Catch, before dinner was finally ready.
For dinner, we had: Ham with brown sugar glaze, Sweet potato's, Mashed potato's and gravy, Rolls, Green beans, Cranberry sauce, and Sparkling grapejuice.(thats what the bottles on the table are)



















After dinner Leanne and I played Chutes and Ladders with the children, while the boys washed dishes, and the parents talked.















A little while later we played 3 full rounds of Dutch Blitz(a card game) a full round is when someone reaches 100 points, we played with two people on each team and my team won every time.




After games, we had pumpkin pie which the twins had made, and at around 10:30 it was time for the Bryans to leave.






Dad called again and talked for a little while, and after putting the children to bed, we olders played an inside game of catch that Daniel had gotten for me.
We all had a wonderful day, but are looking forward to an even better Christmas next year, with Dad and the new baby!