Christmas Day 2020

 

Breakfast first. (Everyone gobbled the strata and ignored the sugar cereal-- sob. Long-standing tradition rejected for the sake of nutrition). 

We began with scripture, moved on to family gifts to each other, upended the stockings, and proceeded with slow-paced opening of grandparent gifts through the whole day until people showed up for the cookies later that evening.

My greatest gifts are these people. God is good beyond ken.

No, John Wayne!  Next year, if he's still living, I should make him a gingerbread dog. 

Aidan shows off the wolf bag Millie made him.

And here, Aidan faints when he sees the wolf pillow that Piper made for him.

Aidan showed me that he had eaten himself into a genie. 

Someone took these next few pictures while I took a nap. 

This one's blurry, but I post it because Skylark's Elvis impersonation is so darn good.

This is Aidan's Aidan impression. It's very convincing.

A candle-extinguishing contest while waiting for the ham to appear from the oven.

After lunch, we tackled gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Owen, with breaks to play after each unwrapping.

I have many more pictures of everyone opening and enjoying gifts from Dude and Dudette, but the lighting is terrible, so I'll end with this one of the boys opening their drones. DRROOOOONES! 

The cookie party became a surprise gift bonanza when Debbie and Rundy arrived with a carload of top-secret, incredible gifts from Evan for the children. Caleb and Justin sent things over the top with a Big Gift that they'll hopefully enjoy with us this summer, and Justin gave me a meaningful gift that moved me to tears. (I blamed the tears on my lack of sleep, but, really, I probably would have cried, anyway.)

Here are the famed Gummy Burrs from Evan. 

Cadence was stunned and could not speak. She spent the next couple of weeks doling them out like a benevolent dictator.

Ransom and Marnie were accidental twins!

Oh, yes. Cookies. Millie made the pretty ones.

I found these pictures on my phone of some of the cookies that Others in our house decorated.

And, for Mopsy, here's a picture of the children playing with those magnetic tiles hours after bedtime. A good end to a good day.