Our Christmas Eve tradition is something that Tyler has been doing with his family since he was little, so we already had our plan for the day and night being at his sister’s house. We always start with appetizers, so after making a list of our favorites and getting lots of help in preparing them all, we sat down to enjoy. We took some pictures as we started our Christmas Eve festivities - one of everyone and one of each of the tables.
Our appetizers included jalapeño poppers, mozzarella sticks, guacamole shrimp bites, and bruschetta. Everything was delicious.
Our first activity was the talent show. It’s always hard to prepare a talent when you’re not at your own house, but everyone participated and found something to share with us. Taryn learned a song on the ukulele. Aubrey was a little more prepared since she had taken her flute anyway to take real lessons with Halley. They’ve been doing virtual lessons through zoom once a week, but Aubrey was very excited to be able to have a real lesson in person with Halley while we were at their house. So Aubrey performed a song that they had been working on for the last couple months.
Tessa and Julia prepared a duet on the ukuleles. They both played and sang. It was to a song from the movie Tangled, and they did so good having prepared it in just the few days that we had been there. Abby sang a song from the hymn book and it was so pretty. Abby and Halley and Anna also performed a musical dance number together. They did a synchronized swimming number where they danced behind a sheet to a Christmas waltz song. It was awesome. I videoed it but didn’t get any pictures. It was hilarious and well done.
After our traditional dinner of chicken balls and mashed potatoes, we did the piñata. The parents wrapped a box full of goodies and gifts and Tyler and Justin figured out a way to hold it up in the living room so everyone could take their turns hitting it. They are always very creative in how they wrap the box and how they can get it high enough to lift it and let it swing around while everyone takes turns.
With how well it is wrapped, it always takes multiple rounds of everyone getting a turn. They start by getting two or three good swings while trying to make them good contact hits as the dads lift and sway the rope to make it more challenging. Taryn and Aubrey still had good hits.
Tessa and Abby took their turns as well and made good indentions in the box, but nothing opened. We always go youngest to oldest in hopes that everyone at least gets one turn, but it usually ends up that everyone has to take 3 or even 4 turns before it really starts opening up. The best part of the night was when Anna took one of her turns. She decided to try a different approach and planned to stab it from underneath with the stick, but with one quick movement by the dads, she ended up swinging at air and releasing the stick and it hit the ceiling and made a nice crescent shaped mark. We all laughed and laughed forever before we calmed down enough to let the next person go. It was really funny.
This year the gifts inside the piñata were individually wrapped presents for everyone that happened to be the traditional matching pajamas. With all of the whacking and hitting, some of them were already coming open and falling apart, but the names were luckily intact so we knew which pair belonged to which person. We all immediately got into our pajamas after cleaning up the piñata mess and then we had to take some pictures in the cute matching “oh deer” pajamas. The synchronized swimming number put the kids in a good mood for awesome picture poses which I loved. We also figured we had to do a pose with all the girl cousins holding the one boy cousin. They all got along really well together as we hung out all week, but Jacob’s face was perfect for this pose as he was surrounded by so many girls.
We took one with all the girl cousins too after Jacob made a fast getaway as soon as they let him down from the previous picture. We really liked these pajamas and thought they were super cute. We were also very happy we could find matching ones for all the varying sizes from the little girls all the way up to the moms and dads.
We finished off the night by watching the newest video that the church had put out about the nativity story. It was an awesome rendition of the Savior’s birth. They showed a lot about the shepherds and wisemen as they were guided to the Christ child. My favorite part was when the wisemen came to worship him, he was a toddler by then, but they still were so overjoyed that they were able to meet him and when they all bowed down to this little boy, you could feel the spirit so strong. And the joy and happiness on the wiseman’s face was just so powerful. We loved it. We were able to get one good full family picture in with our matching pajamas before we sent the kids off to bed to get ready for Christmas morning.
Christmas morning came early as usual. It was probably 6:30 am when the kids starting waking up the adults. I was too tired to think clearly, but luckily Tiffany took some pictures of the morning. Here’s Aubrey and Taryn with some of their presents and Tyler as he delivered gifts from under the tree to their owners.
Tyler and I were across the living room from Tiffany and Justin. Tiffany took these picture of us as we got ready to start opening presents and as we took turns opening our gifts. It’s nice to be in some pictures and not always be the only one trying to remember to document everything through pictures. We like to stretch out the present opening process by everyone watching as one person opens a present. We usually go from youngest to oldest until all the presents are gone. It’s a fun tradition that lets us enjoy the reactions as presents are opened and to lengthen out the Christmas morning process.
It didn’t take the teenagers long to take their morning nap. They all decided to snuggle up under their blankets as soon as the presents were opened and take a quick snooze while we cleaned up and prepared breakfast.
One of the presents the parents received was a hard drive of pictures and home videos that Tara had put together from all of their family’s videos. We spent the morning watching a few videos when Tyler and Tiffany were kids like birthday parties and family gatherings. We also happened to come across the wedding video that I put together for our wedding. It had all the pictures of Tyler and I as we were growing up, so the kids thought it was pretty funny. I loved watching it and Tiffany conspicuously took this picture while we all were enjoying that wedding video.
The cousins are really close and I always feel so blessed that they get along so well and it doesn’t take long for them to get back to being best friends when we get together. I took this picture of Halley and Abby as they talked and conspired on the couch across from me on Christmas Day.
Taryn and Lucy are like long lost best friends whenever they get together. They do everything together. One of Taryn’s Christmas presents was a hair extension maker kit. She made one for herself and then let Lucy make one too. They wanted pictures of them together; and they definitely wanted one showing off their new cool hairstyles.
We’re always sad when it’s time to leave Utah. We love being with family and spending that quality time together. We always leave looking forward to our next visit. When we got home from our week long Christmas vacation, we still had some time left before school started up again. Abby spent some of that time with her friend Astrid. One day she went to Astrid’s house to help them make tamales. She said it was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Luckily, we got to help eat the finished products. They were Costa Rican tamales which are a little different than the typical Mexican tamale. They had a lot more vegetables and filling than just the meat ones, but they were equally delicious. We also scheduled Abby’s driving test for one of the free days before school started. She was very nervous, but prepared and she did great. She passed with flying colors and she immediately came home ready to go for drives on her own. She took her first “parent-free” drive with Tessa and they went and picked up ice cream cones for all the kids. It was a fun tradition that I hope all the girls continue - taking a sister for their first drive with a drivers license. Abby’s an awesome big sister and I love the great example she sets for them, for me, and for everyone she meets.
We planned New Years Eve festivities at our house by inviting friends to join us and doing our traditional appetizer and game night. Aubrey baked her own cake from scratch and was excited to decorate it too. Tyler’s family sent texts wishing everyone a happy new year and asking what we were all doing, so I had to send pictures of all our appetizers that we were preparing.
We had the Kasallis and Andersen families join us for food and games. The only picture I got of everyone was while they all took turns playing Rock Band. It was fun singing songs and playing games together and visiting while the kids all played together. We’re very grateful for good friends when we don’t have family living near us. We can always count on our good friends to help us celebrate the holidays that we’d normally spend with family. They have become our family and we love that the parents and kids are all so close. It was a great way to finish off the crazy year of 2020 and prepare for the new year.
Aubrey’s cake was a great hit. She decorated it herself and was very happy with how cute it turned out. It was a little confusing when she asked to put candles on and everyone kept asking who’s birthday it was or who was turning 21, but once we explained that the “21” was for the New Year (2021), it made a lot more sense. We were all happy to say goodbye to 2020 and all of its weirdness, and ring in the new year and celebrate with cake, food, games, and friends.
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