December 27, 2013
For the first time since having kids, I didn't send out a Christmas card this year. I love Christmas cards too, but it just didn't happen this year. I think with the combination of posting photos on Facebook and writing in my own blog, the urgency of keeping people updated has certainly diminished. So if you are reading this and you usually get a card from me, please don’t think we don’t love you anymore. It’s not you, it’s me. :) Hopefully this post and the ones before it will fill in the gaps about what you may be wondering about my family.
Everyone always asks me what I plan to do for Christmas: whether we’ll be taking a vacation or relaxing at home. My answer is “neither.” We won’t be going anywhere far, but it also won’t be relaxing. Our Christmas breaks are absolutely filled with fun activities. It seems like every year we add on more traditions. So this blog is basically designed to brag about how cool my family is.
This year the fun started on Sunday, the 22nd. Our first family event was with my mother-in-law’s family. See, that’s the thing. With both sides of my family, plus both sides of my husband’s family living in San Diego, we have many opportunities to celebrate on any given holiday. The Oaks side is perhaps the most complicated of all the groups we visit. My mother-in-law belongs to a big family with various step-siblings and half-siblings. The titles don’t matter though. They all love each other and they all get along splendidly and so their get-togethers are big, loud, yummy affairs. In their family the gift exchange involves picking a gender-neutral gift (or combination of gifts) to be played in the steal-the-present gift game. They always say that the gift is supposed to be around $25, but hardly anyone follows that advice. Some gifts will have $50 gift cards in them, making those of us who follow the rules feel a little shabby. My competitive nature has kicked in with this family and next year I am absolutely determined to have a good gift (just not sure what it’ll be yet) to bring!
This year’s party was more fun than others for me because my kids are finally old enough to play by themselves away from me. Wahoo! They and their cousins just ran around for a few hours outside leaving me free to socialize a bit. Even though I don’t want my kids to grow up too quickly, having them be more independent really is nice.
On Monday we spent the day playing with Sarah and Terence who are in town for the week. It’s fun to see my sister pregnant and happy and so exciting to think about having cousins on my side of the family. Yea! What I love about my sister and brother-in-law is that they are are total troopers. Even though they must get tired, they are always willing to play board games, shoot baskets, sing songs, dress in costumes, whatever. This Monday when my “I refuse to nap for you” three year old got a little cranky Terence made an impromptu song about “It’s Not Funny” that had everyone laughing for the rest of the car ride.
On Monday night, for Family Home Evening, I introduced what I hope will be a new family tradition called “The First Gift of the Season.” We read Luke out loud and opened up our first Christmas gift which was a beautiful new nativity set--kid friendly. This lead to a nice discussion about Jesus and His gifts to us. I’m hoping this will be a fun way to make sure we keep Christmas holy and also to expand my nativity collection!
Christmas Eve has always belonged to the Worthen side. This is kind of an interesting year for the Worthens because Grandma Sue, who has hosted holidays at her house for decades, has moved into a retirement home, leaving the next generations to come up with their own traditions. My sister-in-laws took up the mantle for a super-fun Christmas Eve. The mere fact that the 4 boys (ages 3,4,5,6) were kept busy and out-of-trouble for 5 hours is a feat in its own. We had a huge Mexican feast, played Disney Scene it (the boys won again, arg!), gifted everyone with new pajamas, had an outdoor fire, sang carols with new songbooks, and got to be with some of our favorite people all night long. It really was a very special day that I hope will continue to repeat itself for many years.
Christmas is done in three parts for my family. Prior to the Big Day I actually put all of our presents at other people’s houses (the advantage of living so close to our mothers) so that when the boys wake up on Christmas morning all the see is what Santa brings. I like the feeling of presents being carefully opened instead of amassing into a large pile. This year my first grader got a giant Pikachu, and a huge Lego set (996 pieces) from Santa. My three-year-old got a new bike and lots of little toys. Daddy got some new shoes and Mommy, well, Santa had to bring her present to Grandma’s house because it didn't fit at home.
After unveiling our stockings, trashing our living room, and grabbing a small breakfast we head on to phase two: Grandma & Grandpa’s house. Christmas breakfast has always been the tradition in my family’s home. There is where the bulk of our family presents were unwrapped and played with. I got to see my Christmas present first: a giant archery target! Wahoo! After breakfast I finally got to use my birthday present (an awesome compound bow). Actually everyone used it. Aunt Sarah, 6 months pregnant and all, was actually the top scorer, but I plan to practice and practice all year long, so we’ll see about next year!
We were blessed with many wonderful presents this year--of which I don’t think I need to list. As a family we took a lovely walk outside. How many people in the world get to enjoy 80 degree weather on Christmas? We also watched one of our new movies and played Disney Cranium (the girls won) before leaving everyone to their naps.
Phase three was just down the street at Nana and Papa’s house. There we met up with the cousins again and were treated with multiple Nana activities. She had outdoor games set up, including archery for the kids. There was a huge dinner and tons of desserts and of course more present opening. I always like doing presents at Nana’s house because we think so much about what to give to all the kids that it’s rewarding to watch everyone receive them. By the time everyone headed home we were all ready for a good sleep!
The day after Christmas was dedicated to the Ball side of the family. This part of my family has always been creative and fun. Even though the traditions we had growing up have faded with time, the idea that dinners and gifts and parties can be interesting and clever has be indoctrinated into me by my clever aunts, uncles, cousins, parents and grandparents. So this year we decided to revive our theme dinners--something we have not done for 20 years or so. On the theme dinners you don’t get to see the food and you don’t necessarily know what you’re getting. You have to order your plates and utensils too, so you have to be careful. Take a look at the menu to see how many items you can figure out. Anyway, the dinner was a great success and I have a feeling more themes will be played out in future months and years.
Heroes & Villains Menu
Name: ____________________
Please circle THREE items and return to your server:
HEROES VILLAINS
Santa Claus Big Bad Wolf
Popeye Snow White’s Witch
Harry Potter Hansel & Gretel’s witch
Sam Wise Wicked Witch of the West
Charlie Bucket Silver Samurai
Mario
Ninja Turtles
Captain America
Poseidon
King Arthur
Cole, Jay, Zane, Kai & Lloyd
Anpanman
Batman
Ethan
Aaron
And that brings us to now. The downside to all this fun is that my house is a total disaster! Ah well. It’ll get cleaned bit by bit, in between even more fun things coming our way!
Merry Christmas to all of you and have a great new year.
