We spent Christmas Eve night at Dan's family's house. We stayed up way too late and were exhausted the come Christmas morning! Dan's entire family was up and done opening gifts before I even got there last year at 8am. This year...well the first person didn't even wake up until closer to 9am. I was surprised that Jordan and Gabe out of all people weren't up early! I woke up even before them:)
Anyways, it was nice to be able to spend the morning with Dan's family. After us exchanging gifts with them we started preparing a HUGE breakfast, which is their main Christmas tradition. Breakfast wasn't served until after noon...so I guess it was more of a brunch with our time schedule!
Gabe got a Wii Fit for Christmas. It was actually really funny...Gabe is one of the biggest game system addicts I have ever seen. He grumbles anytime he is asked to get off the couch. He has never seemed to have an interest in exercising like the rest of the boys until now! The whole time we were in Utah he was constantly exercising on that thing! Who would have known a game system could get Gabe liking to exercise (well at least on the Wii...Dan, don't get excited about him possibly wanting to run or play basketball with you soon...)
Dan opening Michael's gift. For some reason Dan was having a hard time Christmas morning...he opened like 2 or 3 gifts that weren't for him including one from us to his Dad. Lol...sleep deprivation I guess!
Michael opening a picture of the Argentina Temple that Jordan gave him. 
Jeff showing off his Tie...He is definitely one of the hardest people to buy for that I know. Let's just say he gets a lot of red ties and socks during the holiday season.
Dan's Parents 
Everyone chipping in to prepare Christmas breakfast.
Dan posing for the camera and pretending to help....jk, he actually did help!
Everyone beginning to serve up. Jeff & Dolores also invited Dan's brother, Andrew, and his wife, Cami, over for the feast. 5) CHRISTMAS WITH THE BLACKS
After we were stuffed from breakfast we headed over to my house to celebrate Christmas with them. Christmas was a little different at their house this year. My parents didn't get presents for each other because they decided they needed to spend the money on redoing the tile in the house, something that they both wanted as well. They also wanted to have a little more money for helping Rueben get out on his mission. So for Christmas, we watched Rueben open presents....lol. It was a little awkward for him, but we broke it up every once in awhile by giving the few gifts Dan and I got for my family as well as what they got for us, to each other. It was just nice to be with my family again on Christmas. Especially since Rueben will be leaving on his mission soon...so it was our last Christmas together for awhile. I miss all the little things Rueben and I used to do on Christmas growing up. Rueben and I were reminiscing a little on Christmas about all the silly memories we have.
My mom works every other Christmas, so every other year we didn't celebrate Christmas until after 5pm. As kids, my mom would always leave one present for us to open in the morning. It was always something that was supposed to occupy us the whole day, like a Nintendo game or something...or least it was an attempt to occupy us! After we took total inventory of EVERYTHING under the tree and tried to figure out what each gift was, we would usually end up at the Cooper's house to play with their presents until we got ours.
I remember one year we got this huge container of perler beads. It was the BIGGEST present under the tree and Rueben was determined to figure out what it was. It was a year my mom wasn't working...but we were still waiting for my dad to wake up so we could open our presents. When my dad owned his jewelry store he would work way into the night on Christmas Eve and was absolutely exhausted on Christmas morning, so even if it wasn't a Christmas my mom was working...we often still had to wait a few hours after we had woken up to open presents. Sometimes my mom would even give us a gift them to keep us quiet so my dad could sleep peacefully. So anyways, like I was saying, Rueben was determined to figure out what the gift was. He kept on picking it up and shaking it and then would set it down and be back again to shake it like 10 minutes later. He did this so many times I think we lost count. My mom kept on telling him, "I wouldn't shake that if I was you....", but he just kept on shaking and shaking it. When we FINALLY got to open the gift, we found out there were thousands of perler beads, about 50 different colors, that were each supposed to be in their own compartment...but instead they were all mixed and scattered throughout the whole thing....needless today Rueben and I as well as the Coopers spent most of Christmas break re-sorting the colors and then creating lots of things with the beads! The Coopers got perler beads that year as well..but ours was WAY bigger than ours, just really mixed up!
Anyways, back to this past Christmas!
Rueb opening one of his gifts. My dad always likes to confuse us by his wrapping...probably because we examined the gifts so closely as kids. Rueben got lots of talks on CD by Jon Bytheway for Christmas. Each was wrapped in a unique way. This one was surrounded by bubble wrap.
Angus closely watching Rueben open gifts. One of Angus's favorite things to do is unwrap presents. I think he just likes tearing things apart. He was staring Rueben down and wining constantly until Rueben let him join in the fun. We always have to wad up paper for him to "open" and throw it 10 feet away or else he "helps" us open all our gifts.
Me & my bud....I miss Angus when we are away! Not so sure about Dan...but I miss him!
Rueben gave this to Dan as a gag gift before he gave him his real gift...my dad and Dan both tease each other relentlessly about their lack of hair...and Rueben just had to join in the fun.
I have to say...it was REALLY funny. Rueben saved his hair in a bottle from when he shaved his fro and turned it into a mullet (he was imitating his swim coach...who has a mullet...). After which, he shaved it entirely for state. I hadn't realized he had kept the hair all year long! It made me laugh.....
My mom and I are both trying to collect nativities from around the world. We had asked Dan's mom if she could look for some while she was in Argentina. My mom ended up surprising me and buying mine for me for Christmas. I absolutely love it! I think it is funny how the people look almost just like the llamas with how they are standing...
This is my mom's set she got from Argentina. I like hers too..I thought it was neat how baby Jesus is sitting on Mary's lap.
Rueben playing on my dad's IPOD. Rueben and I had fun playing all the games on there together while we waited for Christmas dinner to finish cooking.
Dan was dying to watch the Boston Celtics vs. LA Lakers on Christmas. He got to watch some of it while dinner was cooking, it was funny because he thought he would be watching it alone (my dad and brother aren't really into watching sports). But my Grandpa surprised all of us by getting into the game as well! (My mom didn't even know he watched basketball!)
My parents at the end of the night...
It started to snow like crazy Christmas afternoon and into the night. It was snowing so hard my grandpa had to sleepover because the roads were closed...so he couldn't drive home. That has never happened before. It was a little different for us and for him to stay over, but we enjoyed getting to see him a little longer.
My Dad and Dan dressed for the snowy weather. They had to go move a car off the street so the snow plow could come through. It took them a little while just to dig a path out to the car. It was nice to see snow, but boy was it cold!
2 comments:
christmas was awsome, and just for all your info, i opened a few presents that were not mine at my parents house because i was just teaching everyone that trying to steal other people's presents is wrong. No just kidding i actually thought they were mine and maybe because i wanted a few more presents.
i received great gifts, my favorites were the LDS books i received. Christmas breakfast was great at my families home and also dinner at the Blacks. I eat a lot and it felt good. I was even able to watch the end of the Boston Celtics and Los Angelas Lakers game and grandpa black musker watched it with me, that was cool.
I collect nativities too. I got one in Hawaii that is made out of a coconut shell. It is really cool.
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