Christmas Day

After presents were done, it was time to get ready for Christmas dinner. We decided to have it at our house so the kids could all have some fun on our new play set. My dad took on the job of cutting the meat while we did the other final preparations for dinner/lunch.

 

I thought it was funny how many different pictures Jacob managed to get of Todd and Justin on their phones/tablet. They really didn’t do this ALL day. It just looks like they did.

The kids enjoyed the beautiful weather for the day, playing outside for the most part. 

 

Then when everyone was starving the food was ready. The kids got their own kids table, and the grown ups ate at the big table.

 

Dinner turned out pretty good. I actually enjoyed making it and it was way easier than I thought it would be for 17 people. We had both ham and turkey and all turned out well. Except the pies. Two pie crusts turned out horribly wrong and ruined the pudding pies. Luckily there were 3 other good pies. That’ll teach me to substitute. I made those pie crusts with butter at Thanksgiving and they were delicious. I tried using coconut oil instead this time and it did NOT work out. Lesson learned.

After dinner we moved into the front room for the cousin gift exchange and opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa. Eloise and her new umbrella:

Oh, there they are again:

and again:

They really didn't spend all day doing this. But it was the most noteworthy thing, I suppose, which is why we have so many pictures of them and their electronics.

Like I said, the kids spent most of their time outside playing.

Annie told me she loved playing in her castle.

Except for pie breaks. Ryan loved his pumpkin pie.

When the grownups got tired of supervising we let some movies do the supervising for a while.

Then we let Savannah do the supervising, with a little help from Rachel's new art supplies.

One of the most exciting gifts of the day was a new helicopter Jake got from my parents. Ryan (and Jacob) loved it. After spending all day watching it fly and asking to do it again and again, Ryan was happy to sit next to Jacob watching a Smarter Every Day YouTube video about how helicopters work. He was engrossed in the video. Until he heard the click of the camera.

It was an overall awesome Christmas day with lots of fun and family.