Christmas Day

We had a fun quiet Christmas by ourselves in Washington. We missed all of our family and friends.

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we followed our usual traditions. We had our own breakfast cookie party. For dinner we made steak instead of prime rib, but made all the other sides we usual have, horseradish carrots, smokey cheesy potatoes and a layered jello in honor of Tamara. Every Christmas Eve we get new pajamas, we opened them as usual but for a special prize I made all of the kids a gingerbread man. I make the kids something every year for Christmas, it is my favorite part of the gift giving. I have a gingerbread man from when I was a little girl. Every year when we get out the decorations all the kids fight over "gingy" So I decided to make them there own. They loved them. It is funny the kind of things they really like. It may have been there favorite part of Christmas. After that for the nativity we watched an old one we had made on video a few years ago. It was an enjoyable evening, but we really missed our families down in Arizona. The traditions were not the same without all of the people to share them with.

Snowflake Lane

For family night the week of Christmas we went to down town Bellvue to Lincoln square. Every night during the Holiday season they have toy soldiers dressed up and the do a little show down the street and have bubble machines blowing so it looks like snow. We took the kids down there and ate at the Cheesecake factory and walked the street. It was very fun and festive. However we wished they did Temple lights here.

Gingerbread Party

The day the kids got out of school we let them all invite some friends over and we decorated gingerbread houses and trains. It sounded like a good idea, but it turned into one of the biggest messes I have ever cleaned up, and that is saying a lot. Surprisingly pre-teen boys aren't so good at building gingerbread houses. Ammon was a disaster there was stuff every where. However the kids had a blast and it was very festive. We tried to do all of the traditions that we usually do with all our family back in AZ. With the Hawkins we usually decorate the houses together as families. For dinner I served Pizza Fondue, which is what my family always has on Christmas Eve.