Saturday, December 31, 2016

Christmas 2016

Since Christmas fell on Sunday this year, we had a spur-of-the-moment idea on Saturday morning to celebrate that day instead but drag it out by letting the kids open just one present every hour until all the presents were gone.  That way, the excitement would continue all day long, and we wouldn’t be rushed trying to get everybody done and out the door for church on Sunday morning.

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It went so well that I think we may do Christmas the same way every year from now on!  Spreading it out throughout the day was way more fun and far more relaxing than the frenzy of opening everything at once.  Not only was it easier to control the mess, but the kids had a chance to enjoy each gift for a whole hour before coming back for the next surprise.  There was a buzz in the air every hour as they watched the clock and dutifully appeared miraculously on time!  LOL

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It was really a lot of fun.  At the end of the day, Steve and I looked at each other and wondered aloud why we hadn’t thought of this before.  It was brilliant!  I think we have now established a new tradition in the Burgess household!

So then instead of taking the kids out to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve as I’ve always done in the past, we just went out on Christmas night instead.  No one was around, so it was easy to visit even the most popular locations without a big crowd or lots of traffic.  That was nice.

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Overall, we had a wonderful holiday weekend.  We enjoyed it very much.  I even made a whole spread just like at Thanksgiving for our Christmas Eve dinner with rolls baked from scratch and made plenty of extra mashed potatoes so we could have my mom’s famous “fry-up” for breakfast before church on Christmas morning.  That was a great way to start the day!  After church, I made a huge batch of fruit salad, too, and my kids loved getting to have that again (we usually only have it at Thanksgiving).  Steve got to take a bowl of it with his lunch every day early in the week, and he was happy to have that little extra treat, too.

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This was the last Christmas where all of my kids are still kids.  By next Christmas, Hayden will officially be an adult, Haylee will be a teenager, and Holden will be turning double digits.  That’s so hard to believe!  I truly must be getting old.  LOL

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

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