Christmas Eve Pajamas

Christmas Eve is always so special.  We always watch The Santa Claus 2 on Christmas Eve.  We love it; it's our favorite Christmas movie.  As we were watching together as a family, one of the kids heard sleigh bells downstairs so we ran down & found the back door open & presents sitting on the couch.  Santa had stopped early & brought a gift for each family member.  This happens every Christmas Eve so the kids were excited to see what PAJAMAS we were getting this year.

This year our theme was "Christmas Sweater Pajamas."  We all got matching buffalo plaid pajama pants, & a Christmas sweater t-shirt that matched our personalities.

Craiger got an astronaut.

Cadence got a Christmas tree made out of hedgehogs.

Taya got an owl with a Harry Potter scarf & Sorting Hat.

Lorien's was my favorite.  Our family LOVES "Emperor's New Groove" & she got Kuzko saying "No Touchy My Presents."

Canyon got his typical Mario themed pjs.

And Bladen, my dino lover, got a Jurassic World shirt with his.

I got Mickey Mouse . . . as always (my favorite)

And Trek got Darth Vader.

It was a perfect way to end a wonderful day.  After the movie, we all went straight to bed so Santa could come.

 

Christmas Eve Fun

Christmas Eve was lovely this year.  This is our last year having all 6 of our kids home, living under one roof so I cherished every single second of every single day.  Our tree was beautiful.  My friend Nancy always completely spoils us rotten at Christmas.  Most of our gifts are from her.  We had some gifts from each other as well as a few from grandparents & aunts/uncles/cousins as well.  We felt very blessed.

To pass the day, I made a saran wrap ball for our family.  In the center was a new game for our family, but around that center was mounds & mounds of candy, treats, knick knacks, & other surprised wrapped in TONS & TONS of saran wrap.  The rules of the game involve dice, gloves, & the ball.  Everyone takes turns rolling the dice.  If a double is rolled, that person puts on the gloves & starts unwrapping the saran wrap ball.  Anything that falls out of the ball during their turn they get to keep.  Meanwhile, the rest of the players are still rolling the dice trying to get doubles.  It's quite hilarious.  The kids had a blast & were pleased with the pile of goodies they got on their turns.

We spent the day singing Christmas songs, dancing (trying to teach Trek how to "floss"), & playing games together.

For Christmas Eve dinner I made homemade chicken nuggets (my family's favorite dinner).

It was a WONDERFUL DAY together as a family.

 

Gingerbread Houses & Chickens

This post is about our yearly Gingerbread House tradition, but I had to add a video of Craiger chasing down one of the chickens because it was so funny.  This happened the same morning we made gingerbread houses, so it fits the timeline.  ha ha ha.

Our landlord here in Germany has a field of chickens that live behind our house.  There are about 25 of them & they've all recently learned how to fly, meaning they have learned to escape their fence.  I know it drives our landlord crazy that they are escaping, but we are LOVING having chickens everywhere.  I know, we're strange.  They are in our front yard, on our car, in our backyard. . . & the kids LOVE to catch them & take them home.  Craiger is the master of chicken catching.  They LOVE him.  He catches them & snuggles them up in his arms.  He talks to them & pets them & just loves them.  Then he gently places them back behind their fence.  I've been trying to remember to take a video of this process, but always forget.  The ONE time I remember to take a video, the chicken runs away from him.  It's kind of hilarious.

After chicken adventures, we got ready for the day & made gingerbread houses.  We had 5 premade gingerbread houses so Craiger & Lorien built one together while everyone else made their own.

I love how focused they are on making their house.

SO MUCH FUN.

 

Christmas Goodies

One of my favorite holiday traditions is baking.  Both my Grandma Cherry & my mom always made special treats around Christmas time.  I've carried on this tradition since the year I got married.  It's great because I always get my kids involved as well & I know they will carry on the tradition as they become adults.  We enjoy baking together.

The boys' favorite treats are sugar cookies.  My Grandma Cherry had the best sugar cookie recipe in the world & they are always the most asked for treat every Christmas.  The kids love to decorate them.

This year, we managed to make:

Sugar Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Peanut Butter Balls

Buckeyes with & without Chocolate

Divinity

Peanut Butter Toffee Fudge

Mint Fudge

Chex Muddy Buddies

Caramel Marshmallows

Homemade Soft Caramels

It took 10 days & all hands working, but it was delicious.  We were able to put together 50 plates of goodies to take to teachers, friends, neighbors, co-workers, piano students, & more.  We also ate more than we'd like to admit.

It was a VERY delicious Christmas!