We did a lot of our normal Christmas eve traditions but we've really slimmed our traditions down over the years. It makes things more simple when we are traveling at Christmas.
Christmas was wonderful. The kids woke up early and went through their stockings. Stockings are always my favorite thing and I love watching my kids find all the treasures in their stockings. They loved their stockings and their "Santa gifts".
Then by 8 am, all 20 of us were awake and ready to open presents. We all gathered in the family room and we first watched the kids open all their presents. We didn't give our kids a ton of presents this year, but that was because each of them got an ipad and apple pen. They were pretty excited. The kids always exchange sibling gifts and then they also got gifts from their Oregon Grandparents.
After the kids had finished, the adults exchanged gifts and then we all gathered to open the big "basement gift" from Nanny and Papa. Nanny and Papa give the grandkids a big gift for the basement every year. But this year it was whole new level of amazing.
The year my parents gave everyone a cruise to Alaska. I'm still in shock even though i've known about it for months and I made 20 shirts for my parents so everyone could open them on Christmas morning.
It was such a fun reveal. The cousins can't wait to spend the week on the ship together and I can't wait to spend the time with all my family in Alaska. It's going to be so amazing.
After opening presents, my kids all took naps. Tucker is still recovering and Benson started feeling sick so I'm just praying no one else gets it.
Chris and I got the sweetest gift from Tucker this year. He painted a beautiful landscape picture and then wrote a sweet poem about his life. It brought both Chris and I to tears. It was so sweet.
Christmas was so great and my Dad had a very lucid day with us. It was so sweet to have that time with him. My parents only exchanged poems this year because they spent so much money on the cruise. Their poems were so sweet and they were both crying after reading them to each other. It was the sweetest display of love! I'm so grateful for their example of what marriage should always look like. They are just the best.
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