Christmasing

It was late on Christmas Eve when the stockings were finally filled and the presents were all wrapped.  I always like seeing the stockings all lined up on the couch.  The rest of the house was a wreck and the kitchen would NOT be fun to come down to in the morning, with so much cleaning up to do, but the living room looked quite nice, anyway, and I was too tired to care about anything but my bed.

Three presents each, plus a secret sibling gift makes for a fully loaded tree!

The next morning, I woke up at 4:30 and came downstairs to find that the boys had already come in from doing the morning milking for Papa and were washing up the equipment and that Corynn had cleaned the whole kitchen for me until it was sparkling.

Angels, they are.  Absolute ANGELS.

A wonderful surprise that made for a very tired milkman later in the day...

Bible comes before presents... because we are cruel like that.

Red and Green with my girl.

I made all the food up a day before because on Christmas Day, I want to have as much time having fun and relaxing as everyone else.  

Morning strata:

The rest of the day munchings... and the last of the fancy cheeses and crackers for a good long while.

And lasagna for supper with individual bottles of Ginger beer.

Turns out ginger beer is pretty wicked stuff.  Not one of us made it through our bottle.  

(I absent-mindedly assumed it was birch beer when I bought it.)

A million meringues.  I love them so.

                                                                     Present opening... 

Matt is overwhelmed by books on his shelf that he hasn't read yet and often is so beat at the end of the day he just wants something light hearted to read for the few moments he has before crashing and picks up one of the kids' Calvin and Hobbes books.

So I got him his very own.

It is SO hard to remember which books Corynn needs to complete a series, I upped the ante and got Corynn a whole series for Christmas instead of just one book.

Her face tells me it was worth it.

This is Andrew's excited face and he was excited about.. MUCK boots.

(So is Papa, who no longer needs to share.)

The kids always draw names for a secret sibling gift and Ineke got Corynn a mug with tea in it.  I love watching little children give presents to bigger ones.  I also love watching big children react with grace and kindness.  

Andrew got Moses a ball... and the crowd erupted in applause.  

(This happened many times throughout the day...because Moses loves applause and we love watching him get so excited about it.)

I think Moses favorite gift was the crazy, bumpy ball that accidentally turned on at the conveyer belt in Walmart and it started knocking groceries off left and right.  It eventually stopped after an embarassingly long time just in time to accidentally be turned on again by the cashier, who about had a heart attack when it starting bumping all over her.

Ineke now gets to have lightshows every night in bed.

                                                                        More meringues!  

We hosted the Cantrell Christmas the following week, though some of our family couldn't make it.

Moses, looking all spiffy in his new Christmas duds...

(A friend from church made this adorable outfit for him because I loaned her a similar outfit of Moses' to make a pattern from... let that be a lesson to you- ALWAYS loan outfits to talented seamstresses!)

                                                                  Waiting for company...

INLCUDING my younger brother Cameron, who was able to come home for the holidays! 

The annual Christmas snowflake...which not only must be MADE every year, but also photographed.

My mom and Mister Moses.

And look at that!  MORE meringues!  ;-)

In my next post I will share some of the handmade Christmas gifts that happened *by the skin of my teeth and a borrowed sewing machine!* and then, seeing how it is already well into January, I guess it will be time to turn my attention to the New Year that is before us.

Happy 2021 everyone!