The first thing I have to mention about this Christmas is... the snow! It's something we'll want to remember in years to come, because of the rarity. According to the local paper, our last White Christmas was in 1990 - 18 years ago. (I was 16.) The snowstorms hit early this year (when we had our Foster kids), and haven't left. The ground stayed covered for a full two weeks! At it's highest point, we had over a foot where we live.
The snow changed our plans a bit. Relatives that have always gotten together to celebrate the holidays weren't able to. My (first) cousin (once removed) called my grandma, bummed that this was her first Christmas Eve she hasn't come up to celebrate with us. For her mom (my great aunt), it was only her second Christmas not spent with her sister (my grandma.) The other was when she was due to give birth any moment, and it was better she not travel!
And it was my brother's first Christmas away, too. He lives on a pretty big hill, and they hadn't taken their car out since before the snow started, so there was just no way. I talked to my mom on the morning of Christmas Eve, when it was snowing... again... and she was pretty bummed. I think her concern was that if the snow continued, we wouldn't be able to make it across town either. So in a moment of either depression or desperation (insanity?), she invited our family to stay the night at their house Christmas Eve. We discussed it, and decided it could be a lot of fun, especially for the kids. We had a fun Christmas Eve dinner at home (mini-cheeseburgers, fries, and chocolate milkshakes), then packed up and drove to my mom's house.
We had planned to go to the Candlelight service at our church that night, but it was cancelled due to inclement weather. (Major bummer, since this is our first Christmas at this church - we started attending there last January.) My family said we were welcome to join them for dinner instead, and we considered it, but ultimately we weren't willing to give up the idea of dedicating that whole evening to Christ. So we had our own candlelight service.
We caught up on Jotham's Journey (our advent story), sang several Christmas carols, and read the Biblical account of Jesus' birth. It was... wonderful. I'm so glad we made that choice.
After our service, the kids went up to their beds to find new jammies under their pillows. They put them on, then we watched a short movie (tried to find a fun one related to Christ's birth, and tried "Punchinello and the Most Marvelous Gift", that my mom had on hand, but it was a pretty big stretch to call it a Christmas movie!), while eating popcorn and Christmas cookies.
My mom and stepdad didn't get home from Christmas Eve dinner until around 10:30... yet another confirmation that we made the right choice opting out of dinner... even though my aunt's lasagna was mighty tempting!
On Christmas morning, I had a gift for each person up in our room, to stave off the kids from rushing downstairs and waking grandma and grandpa! Everyone opened books (mine was actually a magazine subscription), and spent a few moments enjoying them before seeing the light on downstairs.
We drank some (VERY WEAK) Starbuck's Christmas Blend coffee, had an egg dish, and very leisurely opened gifts, both from my mom and Bruce, and the ones we brought from home.
Oh, did I forget to mention, I made Jammies for ALL of us? What a cute little family. :)
We wandered up to my grandma's house (at the other end of the block) for a cinnamon roll, then back to my mom's to change clothes for dinner. Dinner was at 2:30 at my grandma's house - ham, potatoes, Waikiki Meatballs and rice, salads, rolls.
(The kids enjoyed a game of Apples to Apples with the cousins before dinner... sadly, the closest relatives to their age... late teens and early 20's.) Then after my great grandparents went home, we opened presents with the extended family.
When Brian went to load our gifts into the van, he discovered the doors were frozen shut... not a good sign. It was late, and it was likely that the roads were icy, so we took up the offer to stay one more night.
The next morning we had whole wheat pancakes, packed up and headed home. It was a very different, but still very nice Christmas. Hope yours was great, too! :)
