Had we been in Houston for Christmas, we would have been at my sister's celebrating Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve. Since my brother had to work on Christmas Eve, my family opted for an early celebration including a delicious brunch and our annual gift exchange, which is always an absolute blast and eagerly anticipated each year. All of the adults draw names and each person buys gifts for only one person. We each keep our gift recipient a secret until the moment we exchange gifts. It is always so much fun! The cousins exchange names as well and buy gifts for each other. We have found this to work very well for our large and continually expanding family.
Since my family was serving brunch, we decided to join in the celebration and have a brunch of our own. We didn't end up eating our brunch until about 1:30, so it ended up being a lunch instead!! We had a citrus sparkler, crab cakes benedict and Julia Child's buttered potatoes. Trust me, it sounds more wonderful than it was. I had to make everything except the citrus sparkler in a hurry because we were all so hungry and we had to get our kids in bed so they'd be rested for church that evening.
*I am experimenting with my camera and not using my flash. I am an absolute amateur so please forgive the quality of most of these photos!!
Early that morning, Jackson and Allison helped me juice the grapefruit, oranges and lime for our drink:
They taste-tested as well :-))!
Hard at work:
He's such a willing helper in the kitchen:
Everyone played a part in getting our food ready. Jason peeled all of the tiny potatoes without cutting his hands!
At 11:00, my sister called and told us they were ready for the gift exchange. Jackson was so excited. Their packages had been under the tree the entire week and he could hardly wait a second longer to open them. But better than opening packages was seeing our family via the world wide web thanks to Skype!!
Amazing isn't it!! Amazing that we could see each other and amazing that I didn't think to expand the screen size until later!
Allison opened a jewelry box from Landon!
She loves it!
He gave her princess board books too!
Isn't this terrific! Look at the quality of that video! And that's just a picture of it. It was even better!
Jackson opening Herbie: The Love Bug from Colin!
He is so thrilled!
He's running to the computer to show them what he opened. Isn't that precious!
"See Kaiden! Look what I got!!"
Opening a TRIO building set from Colin!
He loves it!
More presents from Colin?!
A remote control Percy!!
He loved running to the computer to show his present.
Christy had me!
She got me a Polish Pottery muffin pan. They are the BEST!!
Ronald had Jason! Ronald's gift for Jason came in the mail last and I had used my last roll of wrapping paper on the last gift I wrapped before his came. I had several scrap pieces from all of the rolls I had used, so I pieced them together to wrap Jason's gift. I know Ronald would have done something similar. He had Jason last year and I think he used a bunch of Williams Sonoma green ribbon and pineapple pastry cutters to decorate the outside of the box!!
When Jackson saw the wrapped package, he asked me why I didn't wrap his presents like that. I guess I need to remember that for next year!!
Ronald always picks out the best t-shirts!
The great thing about this shirt is that Jason says this all the time!
I had my mom. She is so fun to buy for because she is so happy with whatever she gets. Since her birthday is December 10th, I combined the two and got her a Kindle. She's in love!!
Isn't it amazing how clear the picture is! I'm still in disbelief. I can't believe this was my first time to Skype. Jackson is showing my mom one of the three Herbie DVDs he received.
Big brother's toys are always to much fun to play with!
A few of the presents from Paw Paw and Grammie:
A Tomica Repair Garage to go with his Tomica train set:
A CD player for Alli:
Allison signing, " Thank you!"
A children's classic...See 'n Say:
And another classic...the busy ball popper!
She loves the busy ball popper. Whenever we go to Toys R Us, she always takes us to it.
Christmas Eve was such a blessing! Our family was so generous to us and the ability to see them all on Christmas Eve as we exchanged gifts was the best gift of the holiday!
3 comments:
I love all the blogging and skyping. What will be next?It is so great to see all the smiles on those faces. Jackson has the sweetest smile.
I know the reason for the season is Jesus. That is an absolute, but to see all the fun all the little kids and us big kids had, well I gotta say the Lord wants that Galatians 5:22 fruit of the Spirit action. I know you spent time with God and honored Him and did some teaching, but I just like the other part too.Love, Dad
Praise the Lord....Big Ron posted on your blog....WOW!
Truly, this was the best Christmas ever. To be able to Skype was awesome. The best part was watching how excited all the grandkids were at being able to see each other over the computer while unwrapping their gifts. What a blessing this technology is.
Jesus is so wonderful to have given us this time of year to worship Him, to celebrate His birth and the gift of our salvation. I pray that the world will truly have a revival and reach out to Christ. He is our only hope.
I am so glad you all enjoyed Christmas! We were so glad to share the joy with ya'll! We're even more glad you BOTH loved your gifts! We love you and miss ya'll!
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