Christmas Eve Activities

Amidst the moving in we have been some of our favorite Christmas activities here and there, including the church Christmas dinner/party, a work Christmas party, looking at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music, reading a lot of Christmas books, picking out some gifts for each other, talking/skyping with family, and watching some Christmas movies.


Rebecca made all of these stockings over the years. She originally made five back in Oklahoma after Julia and Ethan were born. And then just this summer she used her mom's sewing machine to make four more. We only need seven of them now, but she wanted to get a couple extra ones in just in case.


This year we decided to start the kids on a gift exchange and I think it worked out pretty well. They all had a good time thinking of and shopping for a gift for the sibling whose name they drew and they all seemed pretty excited for their presents to be opened. I think it worked a lot better than trying to find 25 little gifts that they could give to each other and they have been more excited being able to focus on just one other person.

Christian wrapping his present for Agnes.

Julia working on a bow for her present for Christian.

This evening we did our annual Christmas pageant routine. This year we went from room to room, eating some food (fish, pita bread, cheese, grape juice, and figs), reading some scriptures, and singing some songs at each stop. I was the donkey again, Rebecca the narrator, Julia was Mary, Ethan was Joseph, Christian and Elliott were shepherds, and Agnes was an angel. We then watched The Nativity Story. We love that movie because it shows a lot the emotions that Mary and Joseph may have experienced at the time of Christ's birth. It seems pretty accurate too based on what we read in the scriptures even though it is not a church affiliated movie. After the kids went to bed Rebecca and I wrapped the final presents, filled the stockings, started preparing our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast, and are now watching It's a Wonderful Life.

All dressed up.

Making cinnamon rolls.

Stocking stuffers and It's a Wonderful Life in the background. We usually do not do cereal in our house and we never do the sweet cereal except for a few bags that we do as a family Christmas present every year. It's cheap, but the kids love it!

If any of the kids do sneak up early this giant Ironman is there to catch them. He has already spooked me a couple times when I was walking by with the lights off.