For the first part of the morning I was a wicked mother and made my children do lots of housework. I just really like to have a clean and tidy house for holidays, and since I didn't make hardly any of the messes around the house, I thought it perfectly fair to enlist their help. The children, on the other hand, thought this was torture.
But they survived the torture. As the afternoon wore on, they got more and more excited. Spencer and Josh for obvious reasons, Tess and Cole because they totally feed off of their older brothers.
At one point everyone - including Lance - was wrestling and screaming and shouting upstairs, next to the Christmas tree, while I was trying to make dinner. I sent them all - including Lance - downstairs, with a warning not to come back up until I called for them.
This is what happens when you send a dad downstairs with four wired kids. Good grief.
This children, of course, loved it.
Dinner was finally ready and we all sat down to feast! This year's menu wasn't too exotic, mainly because I really didn't want to hear my kids complain. (I get that every other stinkin' night of the year - I figured we could all use a break.) We had ham, shrimp, broccoli, yummy Grandma Roper rolls, and some really yummy roasted potatoes.
Everyone actually ate without complaining! It was a Christmas Eve miracle! The only thing I would have done differently would be to have used the good china instead of regular dinnerware. (I got lazy and didn't want to get the china out, or make Lance hand wash it later.) The meal just didn't feel as special, and the kids didn't seem to think it was any different from any other night. (Besides the less complaining, that is.)
Dinner was full of the usual banter. Who's coming tonight? Santa. Have you been naughty or nice? I've been nice - siblings have been naughty! What do you want for Christmas? Spencer: A Wii U. Or a Nintendo 3-DS. Cole: A red scooter. Tess: More broccoli. Josh: A girlfriend.
You read that right.
What do you do with a girlfriend? Hang out and go on dates. What else? What would you do with a a girlfriend? Get married. Well alrighty then. Mothers, hide your daughters! Joshie is apparently on the market.
Mmmm... yummy roasted potatoes. Is it weird that I take pictures of food?
After dinner we gave the kids their pajamas. However, this year the packages were hidden around the living room. This proved to be very exciting.
Thing 3 was ready to open his present!!
Still looking for presents. As per usual, even though they get pajamas every year, Josh and Spencer were still a bit surprised when they opened them. Must be Christmas amnesia.
We all sat down to open our gifts. Tess thought it was time to say a prayer.
So Daddy helped her out.
Cole was pretty excited - new jammies!
Once we were all changed it was time for our annual family picture. Aren't we all super attractive?! (The 'official' picture was in the last post.)
Then the kids wanted individual pictures. Seriously, I have no idea what is up with these poses. But I think we can all agree that they are awesome.
Apparently Josh is serious about finding a girlfriend. What a hottie!
Spencer was pretty excited to have Lego Darth Vader jammies.
Cole decided he ad to get in on the posing action. I think he kinda looks like my Roper cousins in this photo.
Tessie loves elephant jammies! (Yes, blurry. The child does not hold still. Ever.)
I tried to get a shot of all four. This is the only one I got. Apparently we are raising a bunch of little gangstas. South side represent!! (Seriously, we didn't pose them at all.)
Then is was time to get down to the real business of the evening: CHRISTMAS EVE BINGO!!! I told them to show me their game faces. Everyone but Lance took this to mean "move your face so it's blurry in the picture".
The competition was fierce. The prizes were awesome. Fortunately, the bingo caller was able to magically make sure that everyone won at least one game. The bingo caller is awesome like that.
Finally, it was time for dessert. I had planned on making one of those towers of cream puffs with the caramel and spun sugar - you know, the ones that look super fancy and magical? Yeah, not so much. The sugar burned and tasted gross and I thought "Do I really need this stress? No. No I do not." So I just melted some chocolate and made a cream puff tree. Kinda.
Whatever. It tasted good, and that's what matters, right?
After dessert we read one of our new Christmas books, but by then the kids were super wired. Can't imagine why...
So they played with their bingo prizes and raced around the room while Lance played the piano. It was a bit wild.
It was finally time to go to bed. Which is exactly what they did: they got into bed. They did not sleep. Josh came into our room at least twice claiming he was too excited to sleep. Let's just say it was a late night for Santa.
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