Let me first say that we stopped at the mall yesterday because Rylee wanted to go shopping to get Mommy a Christmas present. While James and the kids did that, I shopped in 1 store to grab another stocking stuffer and then I bought a water and sat in the middle of the mall watching all of the crazy last minute shoppers. The mall was very busy and I did witness an irate customer within the first 5 minutes I was there. Shopping on this day reminded me why I complete my shopping way earlier than this and never shop on a weekend. If you were one of these last minute shoppers, more power to you!! The best part of the mall for me was riding in the Christmas train with my kids :)
We headed to our family gathering about an hour later. We normally always have this gathering on Christmas Eve day, but as 5 of our family members will be in Arizona that day, we moved it up to today. It was kind of a nice change this year since Christmas day seems so far away and we were able to have a little celebration (read: open presents) a few days earlier. We arrived to my aunt's house, who always hosts, and took our presents into the house and placed them under the tree......well, close to the tree. There were over 60 presents under the tree!! This is the norm for our small family of 12. It just doesn't seem possible that ALL THOSE PRESENTS could be for this one gathering....but none the less, every present is opened by the end. The Christmas tree is so beautiful with all of the ornaments (she has a lot) and piles of presents!
So, as I was putting presents around the tree I see one that is to me from my niece and nephew...who were NOT supposed to get me a gift! In my family, everyone buys a gift for everyone, but my brother and sister-in-law and James and I decided not to buy for each other once we had kids. Ironically, on the way to this gathering yesterday James asked me, "Your brother and sister-in-law know we aren't doing gifts for each other right? Because I don't want to have any awkward situations." So, yeah...they broke the rules and it was awkward :) They got us sweet presents though...we will have to make it up to them next year....or just offer them a night of baby-sitting (best gift ever, right parents??).
As far as opening presents goes, we all open at the same time. It's chaos for about 5 minutes while the kids are all opening their gifts. There is wrapping paper flying all over the place and I'm trying to watch both of my kids' reactions to their gifts and keep an eye on my niece and nephew to see what they are getting and if they like the gifts we got for them. I don't think any of us adults opened presents while the kids were unwrapping theirs yesterday. I discovered that gifts not put together aren't as exciting to kids. Rylee really wanted a grocery cart, cash register and scooter for Christmas. She got all 3 yesterday, but as they were all in a box, unable to be played with right away, she didn't show much excitement.
After the kids finished opening their gifts, the adults dived in to ours. Normally I at least know one thing I am getting, but this year every single gift was a surprise....I loved everything I got and it was fun! A few things I got were an ISU scarf (I did ask for this, but wasn't expecting it for Christmas -- my birthday is next week), a camera necklace, bath soaps (I'm so excited for my shower today!!!), and chocolate olive oil --- trust me, it is amazingly good!!
I may have explained one of our fun gift traditions last year, but in case I didn't, here it is. When we were little, my brother once told my aunt about some cousins of my dad's (which would also be her cousins since she and my dad are siblings). She didn't know who he was talking about, but he was so insistent that they were real and that he rode horses at their house. He said their names were "Rick and John". So, that year for Christmas we all got an extra gift and the tag said it was from "Rick and John". When my brother saw it, he said "HEY!!!!".....he was embarrassed I think. Anyway, twenty-some years later the story still follows him and we all still get an extra gift from "Rick and John" each year.
After the "main event" of opening gifts, we ate supper. We changed up the order this year, as we normally do gifts after supper. We also changed up the menu from our usual homemade noodles and real mashed potatoes. This year we had pastas (lasagna and chicken Alfredo), salad and bread. It was just as yummy as our traditional meal and made with just as much love by my aunt. I have to give compliments to my husband too who not only spent an hour in the kitchen helping make the pastas and appetizers, but he also made the dessert and some cookies (which I had planned to do, but he took over). No wonder my family likes him so much! By the way, the brownie/peppermint ice cream dessert I had planned to make turned out just as good by adding peppermint extract to vanilla ice cream since I couldn't find peppermint ice cream in the store.
When we left the gathering, our van was full of new gifts and yummy leftovers that I can't wait to eat! It was late when we got home last night, so we waited until this morning to bring all of our gifts into the house. It was like Christmas all over as we took everything out and more carefully examined them. Wyatt played with his new cars and we put Rylee's grocery cart together so we could play "store" 50 times this morning :) It's so cute when she says, "Thank you for stopping in our store today." and "Come again sometime".
All we have left is Christmas day, when just the 4 of us spend the day together and open gifts from each other and Santa Claus. I don't think Rylee will be near as excited about her Christmas day gifts as yesterday's. She told me this morning, "Well, I got my grocery stuff and scooter, so all I want for Christmas now is Frozen stuff". 6/7 things she will open on Thursday are Frozen themed! I can't wait to see what she picked out for me on Christmas day (she kept telling me she was going to get me a Scooter too). I love Christmas with kids!
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