With my in-laws family, most holidays revolve around food (and food preparation). Sarah and crew arrived early Friday morning (well, 9ish, but that's early when you reflect that they had to be on the road by 5 or so to get there in time) and we all had breakfast at Bubby's house. The kids proceeded to run around while the grown-ups hung out, ran errands, cleaned--whatever else it is that grown-ups do in between events.
Christmas Eve dinner was an international-style buffet--each family was tasked with bringing a different dish. Trisha made pigs in a blanket and a noodle salad (not exactly international, but kid-friendly); we brought cheese fondue and Asian potstickers (gyoza); Sarah and Aaron made stuffed jalepenos and some really yummy chicken dish with peanut sauce (I think they said it was Indonesian?). At any rate, there was lots of food and it all tasted good.
After dinner, we assembled the kids for the annual Christmas Eve reenactment of the nativity. This year, for the first time, Lydia got to be Mary. She was thrilled. And Katie (who usually has the starring role), didn't seem to mind too much as it allowed her to ride herd on the littlest angels.
We really missed Matt and Laurie and their kids--not only for their company, but also because of the lopsided numbers of the nativity. As you can see from the pictures, angels outnumbered the shepherds (although, if you think about the hosts of angels, I suppose that is historically accurate) and we didn't have any wise men. Andrew was our sole reluctant shepherd--he refused to be Joseph after finding out that Katie wasn't going to be Mary. (I don't have any pictures of the nativity itself--my camera died shortly after these pictures. Also, I'm not sure what's up with Evelyn--lately, she doesn't seem to be able to pose without grimacing.)This is what Christmas morning looked like at our house. Andrew had just woken up (and we'd just turned on the lights), which is why he seems sort of disoriented. I had to laugh--it's never quite what I envision. Certainly, Andrew's initial, disappointed reaction to his stocking (he thought we'd taken stuff out), wasn't expected.
However, he cheered up when he realized there were still some things inside his stocking.
Evelyn was engrossed with the flavored chapstick she found. And, of course, she had to put on her Tinkerbell dress right away (and spent the rest of the day in it).
While the kids played with toys, we started some breakfast prep (crepes) before heading over to the main house (my in-laws) for the day. Christmas proceeded much as normal: we sorted out presents by recipient, and then took turns opening them. It never fails to amaze me how generous people are.
Miss Katie got her much longed-for toy: an American girl doll. Not so coincidentally, most of her presents involved clothes and accessories for the doll.
I had a brainstorm that this year I should make some of the presents, so I borrowed some doll patterns from my mother (mind you, I've never made doll clothes from patterns before, although as a child I made lots of doll clothes by hand) and spent several obsessive evenings making these:
Evelyn saw me working on them, and requested some for her dolly, which resulted in these:
Luckily, Katie seemed pleased with the dresses. (I don't think I could have handled it if she'd been indifferent to them--all that work!)
Evelyn's favorite present was a set of disney princess shoes (she calls them "heels")--she insisted on wearing the Tiana shoes the rest of the day (you can see them below) and wouldn't even take them off for her nap (although we insisted she remove them at bedtime--I'm afraid they were cutting off circulation in her toes, which were jammed through the opening at the bottom of the toe of the shoe).
Sarah did up Evelyn's hair into a fancy series of ponies. I tried to take a picture--but this is what I got:
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