Ryan was out of town then got stuck in Salt Lake when was trying to fly home. Adam was going to be making the drive down to Dallas alone a day later, so Ryan changed his plans and road tripped with Adam.
That meant I had 5 days alone with kids before the beginning of company arrived for Christmas. The house was a mess when they got here, which makes me all the more thankful that Glover boys know how to clean. While I was busy trying to get my Christmas sewing projects done, Adam and Ryan scrubbed our house and entertained kids. Adam even broke out his guitar to play with the kids.
Ryan made his traditional Christmas poppy seed bread to add to our Christmas goodies. On Christmas eve, Grandma helped Kherington and Kevin put in a call to Santa, Mrs. Claus and his Elves (thanks Morgans!) The kids LOVED it. We reacted the nativity in a very condensed version. Elder Glover (Cory) ended up calling to setup a time to call on Christmas just as we were starting, but he kids were already crashing and ready for bed. At this age it is hard to pack in all the fun Christmas activities with tired kids. Kevin had a meltdown because we told him Joseph just walks by the donkey and makes sure Mary doesn't fall off...he won and got to enjoyed the donkey ride. Jon Bon was a shepherd and a wise man.
Next up was Christmas pajamas. I made the pants and found the matching tops. I thought they turned out super cute. Kherington was in tears because she didn't like them. When I asked her why she said she didn't like pink. She likes green. Uhhh...Christmas morning might be kind of rough if she really doesn't like pink (couldn't she have given me some type of notice on this huge color preference change?) After some tears, she finally came and joined us for some family pajama pictures.
Kherington drew a picture of things she wanted to Christmas. Most of these were news to me. Then the kids set out food for Santa and his reindeer. This year was sugar cookies, water, carrots and clementines. There was an apple in the fridge that Kherington had washed and told me no one could eat (it was the last apple), but it didn't make it out. With that, the kids headed to bed. Adam wasn't feeling well...how sad to miss out on a Chimichanga dinner!
Here is everything ready for the morning. Wrapped presents, my German nutcrackers and of course Cheese Stollen.
Sometime during the night, Santa came and left some presents.
Jonathan was the first kid awake at 4:30am! Finally around 6:30 we woke the other kids up. When they went downstairs they saw that Santa and his reindeer had eaten their treats and left a note, but they couldn't find their stocking...they only saw Grandma, Grandpa and Adams stocking. Then they saw the other room and found a huge 8 person tent, camping chairs, TV pillow, cheeseballs and their stocking. They were enjoying all that when Kherington exclaimed that this was 'the BEST Christmas ever!" (whew...considering she didn't like pink anymore I thought the morning might be pretty rough).
After the kids finished enjoying their Santa gifts, the kids ran upstairs and came back down wearing their pajamas of choice. I don't think we will be keeping the Christmas pajamas tradition. We opened presents. This year each kid got two presents from mom & dad and a coupon book (their favorite coupon is 'cuddle time')...except Jonathan who got a pair of footed pajamas and that was it.
Our next new tradition we tried out was bacon and Liege waffles (Kherington came up with that combo). Along with the cheese stollen, poppyseed bread, eggs and orange juice. It was all pretty delicious.
After breakfast, the kids spent the rest of the morning playing with their new suitcases. They pretended they went to Arizona for 2 weeks (because that is where their friends went). They also enjoyed cousin movie time in the tent. Ryan and Adam also played a couple wrestling games.
