Christmas

We had Christmas Eve at our house this year. I always like to do Minute to Win It type games, but with Mikel being so sick with her pregnancy, I tried to keep them low key and not too physical as in years past.  I asked her to bring the dessert and she made these adorable santa hats.  They were yummy and went fast.  She brought another dessert too, but these were the hit!

We gave Talon and Mikel one of their Christmas presents early...an air fryer, so they could bring it for our dinner.  We had both fryer's going and it still took quite awhile to cook everything up.

After dinner, we started our festivities.  I had warned everyone about a month earlier that we were doing lip sync battles as couples for Christmas Eve.  Tanner and Cynjyn started us off and they did Katy Perry Firework..they had props and everything and it turned out so stinking adorable! 

Garry and I dressed in our best 80's garb and did Human League Don't you Want me Baby. 

Talon and Mikel finished off with Spice Girls Wannabe.  It was really fun and we may have to make it a tradition!

After that we continued as partners and did a relay to see who could pick up the most mini marshmallows with chopsticks and put them in a bowl in one minute. (T and M of course.)

Then we did the chocolate bar game with the dice and hats and gloves.  It got intense!

Then we went back to partners and everyone had 12 candy canes and they could put one in their mouth and had to hook up the 12 on the table and transfer them to the bowl only using the one in their mouths.  (T and C won)

Then we did our gift exchange.  This was the first year I only brought my gift!  Everyone was responsible for bringing their own.

Talon ended up with a blanket, Mikel a trifle bowl, Cynjyn with Car scents from Bath and Body Works, Tanner with a rechargable screwdriver, me with a daily calendar that comes with a color page and Garry with two super cute throw pillows. Everyone was happy!

This year, Christmas was on Sunday.  We have church at 11.  So we decided to open our gifts after church.  So no one was in a big hurry to get up that morning.  I was the first one up, about 8:00 and snapped of photo of the presents and tree this year.

It was also weird that Santa only had to fill 4 stockings!

I had contacted my cousin Jennifer Madsen in October about crocheting me a mermaid blanket for Cynjyn.  We had initially told C and Tanner that they weren't getting much presents because of our trip to Canada that we will be taking in April, so she wasn't expecting anything.  She was surprised and liked this gift. 

She also got some Eeyore pajamas.

She got a Slytherine sweatshirt and now Tanner and her can match in their appropriate house sweats.

Talon and Mikel came over at 12:30.  We opened presents (Tanner and Cynjyn already had them sorted and handed out) and then later had dinner.  

We ended up having tri tip and twice baked potatoes and turkey and mashed potatoes, and gravy and rolls and stuffing.  We had a small turkey breast roast left over from Thanksgiving, so every one voted to have that along with our tri tip.

Everyone except Mikel and Cynjyn got games for Christmas, so we spent the rest of the day playing.  Talon got Suspend and Cynjyn and Mikel actually like it!  They played it a alot and it got pretty intense.

We ended the day with a shot of us in our Korea shirts that Taz had sent back in October, but I held onto them for Christmas and so everyone had a gift under the tree from Taz!

Luckily, we had gotten to SKYPE with him Friday night.  He had requested that I invite all his friends.  So Lyric, Ryan, Andrew, Charlie, Marcus and Michael came and spent a few hours with us.  They got here a little early and we had a nacho bar waiting in case anyone was hungry.  We got to talk to Taz for 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Then the gang all stayed after and visited for an hour or so and ate more nachos.  So all in all it was a fantastic, different, calm and quiet Christmas.  We ended up face timing mom later Christmas night and got to hear all about their quite day too.  I'm so thankful for this time of year and for all the modern conveniences that allow us to connect with loved ones far away.

Merry Christmas Everyone!