Christmas Week 2020

Now that we were back from the wedding it was time to get ready for Christmas. This year I decided to purchase a cat tree for the cats for Christmas, especially since we have Cocoa who is still a kitten and very active. I wasn't expecting it until between 23-29th so I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up on our door on the 21st! I was kind of taking a slow day that day and recovering from our Utah trip but by the time the package came I was kind of bored and wondering what I should do with myself. So Nikki and I built the cat tree together! Cocoa loved it and kept climbing on it while we were building it. We had to put Sage on the tree to get her to go but she got comfortable and stayed up there. It wasn't until night time that Star showed up and we tried putting her on it but she jumped right off. She didn't seem to like it as much. Good thing she's going back to Utah this weekend 😆 Funny enough, the instructions for the cat tree told us at the end of the book that we could convert the box this came in to a cat house...so we did! Nikki and I built it and Charlotte and Alice decorated it.

They seemed to like this box at first but I haven't seen them in it any more. It may be time to throw it out already.

Tuesday was Alice's real birthday and even though we had already celebrated it I still wanted her to have something she liked for breakfast and for dinner. I made her some French toast for breakfast and she said she wanted pizza for dinner. Curtis was happy because it was $10 Tuesday at Papa Murphy's so it was perfect, lol. The funny thing is, she didn't eat very much of her pizza. I'm honestly surprised she didn't ask for mac and cheese because that seems to be her favorite food right now. 

I also decided to get busy on Tuesday and bake some goodies to give to our neighbors and friends. Monday night I baked a bunch of mini loaves of white bread. Then Tuesday morning I went to the store for a few baking items and stocking stuffers. I spent the afternoon baking chocolate w/peanut butter chip cookies, regular chocolate chip cookies and no bake cookies. Nikki and her friend Angie made a batch of rice krispy treats for me. I knew a couple of our neighbors are gluten free so I wanted something that they could have (rice krispy treats and no bake cookies). After Curtis got home and we ate dinner we got the boys to help us put the plates together (Nikki was at work). I didn't get around to making picture cards this year so I just used extra Christmas cards from last year to go on each plate. I signed the cards while the boys built the plates.  Our last stop that night was to my friend Whitney. We didn't have enough bread for everyone to get a loaf but I wanted to make sure she got one. Funny enough, she ended up giving me some homemade jam that she made this year. It is really good. She called it raspberry jam but I think she meant strawberry because that's what it tastes like to me 😆 I also invited her to come over to my grandma's on Christmas for dinner if she didn't have anywhere to go. I was hoping she would come but she didn't. It looks like she was probably out in Emmett at the ranch she's been working at on Christmas.

Christmas Eve was fun. We invited family to our house for a potluck dinner and a game of Christmas Family Feud. It was a hit! Tamara's family, Stillman's family, Dad, Laverne and Grandma Norton all came. It was funny because Chris drove his truck separately than Tamara thinking he would leave early because he doesn't like crowds. He stayed the entire time because he was having such a good time! It's always good to know when you host a good party. Stillman said that's the best Christmas Eve party he's been to. Wow! 😁 Dad, Laverne and Grandma had to leave early around 7:00 to go celebrate Ellie's 18th birthday at Melissa's house. Everyone else ended up leaving our party around 8:30 and before they left we called Ellie and all sang happy birthday to her. We also did some gift exchanging before we played our game. 

Katie gave Alice these Minnie Mouse ears as a birthday gift.

After the party was over we cleaned up a bit and got to opening our pajama presents. It's fun to get to open a present a day early and then have new jammies to wear Christmas morning. After we all got our jammies on Curtis read The Night Before Christmas and the nativity Christmas story from Luke. Then it was time to get the girls and Jack in bed. Jack had already fallen asleep during the story reading so it was easy for him. Garrett was our Santa's Helper so he got to work helping dad bring in presents from the van. We had been hiding most of the gifts at my grandma's house and the two of them went and picked up the gifts earlier in the day when we knew we were done going anywhere. We had already wrapped them all a few weeks ago so it was bring them in and put them by the tree. Then filling the stockings.

Our silly picture

Garrett did a great job setting up the gifts, with a little help from Nikki. She had stayed up to wrap a few last minute gifts. We were in bed by 11pm.

I knew the kids were excited but man, 4 am is WAY TOO EARLY!! I woke around 4am hearing some walking around and someone trying to open our locked bedroom door, then a quiet knocking. I stayed in bed and ignored it until they stopped but then I heard more walking a little later and then meowing...by my door. Apparently, Stardust was ready to go outside around 5:15am. Since I got up to let her outside I decided to see if anyone was by the tree. Sure enough, both boys were awake in the family room by the tree. Garrett apparently was even up around 1am. I'm glad I didn't hear that one! I decided to let them play games quietly on the Switch so it would help pass time for them and keep them busy. Since I was up I knew it was going to be difficult for me to fall asleep again because I was starting to feel hungry. I didn't want any sweet cereal so I cooked myself a couple of eggs. Then I cooked one for Jack because he asked. Nikki even came out because she heard noise but as soon as she realized what time it was she went right back to bed. After I finished the eggs I went back to bed as well. Apparently after I had gone to bed again Jack woke up Charlotte and Alice. I was not happy about that. The kids came in our room a couple times after that since I didn't relock the door. They were so excited to open gifts but we kept telling them it wasn't time yet. We slowly started to get up around 7:30 I think and started with gift opening around 8am. First, Garrett passed out the gifts and we took some before pictures.

These are the family gifts.

We always start with stockings so of course those were first. Then we went around the room and each opened one present at a time. It makes it lasts longer and everyone gets to see what everyone else got. Curtis's parents showed up in the middle of our gift opening so they got to enjoying watching as well and then we opened gifts from them also. The three oldest kids received gifts from some of their friends also. Here are the after pictures.

Alice is wearing a hat that Gaya made. She made one for each of the kids.

This includes some family gifts, not just mine.

Now that Curtis has a gun it's easy to shop for him. Getting him accessories!

I'm glad my in laws were able to share part of our Christmas gift opening that morning. The shirt Nikki is wearing is a gag gift from her friend Angie. Nikki likes gag gifts.

Later we cooked up some deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, and stuffing and took them over to my grandma's to have Christmas dinner with her and Tamara's family. We didn't get there until about 3pm. Grandma cooked a roast and her garden green beans. They were so good! I can't remember everything that was brought but it was all delicious. We played some games afterwards while watching Christmas movies on the TV.  Some of the kids brought some of their Christmas presents to show. It was a fun day but man was I tired from not enough sleep! I think I better end this post for now since it's pretty long. I'll get some more later of the kids enjoying their gifts.