This year we got together with 3 other families who are also here for Christmas. We put together a Christmas party with all of our different families traditions. I think it turned out great!
We started out the evening by frosting sugar cookies thanks to the Chadwicks tradition, and then we had a great dinner. The meal was one of our traditions. We had the "Wagstaff Family feast". Thank you mom for hauling a ham to India with you when you came! After dinner we moved onto another tradition from our family. We played a game where you all sit in a circle and roll the dice. When you roll doubles you get to pick a present from the "pot" or you can steal one that has already been opened. The kids loved getting their presents, and wondering if there was anything "better" in the pot. Each family was assigned to bring enough gifts for each member of their family, and then we threw in some extra gifts. Annie was a little confused when she opened up the oversized underwear, but was even more mad when we re wrapped them and added them into the adult game and someone else opened up the underwear that was hers! After the game we watched "Joy the the World", ate cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus thanks to the MacDonalds traditions.
I'm glad we are so lucky to have such wonderful friends here, and that they wanted to spend time sharing their Christmas traditions, and letting us share some of ours. It sure made Christmas Eve seem more like Christmas Eve. 85 degree weather made Christmas sneak up on me without even knowing it was near. That and the fact that most people here are Hindu and don't celebrate Christmas at all.
Christmas morning started at about 2:30 a.m. when the kids woke up and wanted to see if Santa knew we were in India this year. We told them to go back to bed, and at about 3:30 they again asked if they could go see. We told them no they needed to wait until at least 6, but at about 4 and again at 5 they were in begging to head downstairs. We held our ground and told them to go back to bed. At about 7:30 they woke up again and came into our bedroom. We woke up and told them we weren't sure if Santa had come, and their response was to tell us what all of their presents were. Of course each time we had told them to go to bed the had to sneak downstairs and investigate for themselves. My favorite lines of the day came that morning as we were asking how they knew what they had gotten. They admitted to sneaking downstairs and Maddie was so excited by all the gifts. She was rattling off what everyone had..."Ellie got a bike and a big stuffed bear, Annie has a rocking horse, Ethan has a punching bag thing, and I got FISH!!! One is dead, and one looks like a cat fish like this!!!" as she made the funniest fish face I have ever seen!
Of course Santa did find us, and spoil us like he does every year!! We also had gifts that my parents had dropped off when they were here. The kids were really excited to open them, but wanted to wait for the Christmas Eve party to end in Salt Lake so that they could skype Grandma and Grandpa while they opened the gifts. "I love technology!"
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| Showing off gifts to Grandma and Grandpa Erickson on Skype |
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