Christmas Eve 2011

OK, so apparently I only post on this blog when a holiday comes around!  I swear, I'll be better about posting here regularly once 2011 is over and I am done with my "picture a day" blog.  For now, here are some Christmas posts!

 Every Christmas Eve we get together with Jon's family and do three things without fail.  Have soup in bread bowls for dinner, play find the blanched almond in the Danish pudding, and perform the story of the birth of Christ.  It's all fun, and I really look forward to it every year.  It was great being able to celebrate Christmas with Craig and Carol again.  Since Erica and her family weren't going to be around for long on Christmas day, we had the cousins and couple's exchange their gifts on Christmas Eve.  Here is a picture of all the cousins before they opened their gifts.  Like Rowan's expression?

 Rowan had Kate.  We got her a cute pink dress with ruffles, and made her a stuffed toy.  She seemed to like both, so hey, success!   For a couple we had Aaron and Erica.  Aaron needed long sleeved casual shirts, so we got him three, one of which is exactly like one Wade has.  Jon also liked it, and it was on sale, so he got one too!  Erica wanted a cupcake holder and/or chunky jewelry.  We made that happen.  

Bryce had Rowan.  Rowan got some fun puzzle books from him.  

 Megan and Patrick had me and Jon.  I had my eye a donut pan after seeing these.  Megan got me two!  A normal size one, and a mini one.  Now I need to find or make a reason to use them!  Pretty sure one of   us will be having a donuts for dessert at our birthday party in 2012.

 Jon has to wear polos to work, so Megan got him two nice ones.  Hopefully Jon has enough now for every day of the week, and wont bug me about doing laundry more often!  

 After gifts we had dinner.  Always yummy and very filling.  

 Then we moved on to the nativity.  Here is Megan and Jon dressed up as shepherds.

 Here is Julie, me, and Erica as the angels.  Julie is from China (duh) and gave Craig and Carol Chinese lessons while they were there.  She's a new convert to the church, and will be attending BYU Hawaii.  She came early to spend some time with Craig and Carol, and spend the holidays with us.  She is a really sweet girl.  We enjoyed having her around for the festivities.  Her English is great!

 Me and Jon.

 Group shot of us all in our attire.  Grandma was our audience.

 Carol's butterball of a tree on the left, and ours on the right.  We got all the gifts wrapped and put under the tree after we got home on Christmas Eve- and of course after Rowan had gone to bed.

 Grandma got the almond in the Danish pudding this year.  Normally you try to hide it so people will keep eating pudding, but grandma announced that she had the almond.  It was pretty funny.

It had been a long day, and Rowan fell asleep in the car on the way home.  He wasn't in the best of moods opening his Christmas Eve pj's.  He even refused to wear his top.  Oh well, I got it on him the next morning before we started unwrapping gifts.

He was over tired and very grumpy.  Getting him back to sleep was a pain, but he eventually passed out, making it possible for Santa to come.