With help from Don and Merlene, we managed to get the girls (beautifully) dressed for Christmas and make it to Mom's by 9am. That's a Christmas miracle all by itself. The Wolks also got there about that time, so we had a solid 1 - 1.5 hours with everyone there at once. (The Wolks had to head to the other side of the family's shortly after so Denny could get to work that afternoon.)
Love dressing up my kids for holidays.
We opened gifts - Zoey very helpfully handed everyone's out. Clara still doesn't really get excited about opening presents, but once one is open she's interested in exploring the new item. Jane of course has no idea what is going on but she was happy to sit in Jama's lap and observe. Zoey and Malcolm are more the age for this, and they both were excited to open their own gifts and help everyone else with theirs. I have to say I was pretty excited about some of my gifts this year, especially some extremely comfy Ravenclaw PJ pants from Jack and a really cute Hogwarts hoodie from Mom, complete with fancy hood.
Behold.
Mom got the grandkids a figure-8 type train set that was very popular. Malcolm and Zoey were really excited about it, and after the Wolks had to leave Clara played with it for a very long time. The other siblings and Jack played Betrayal with a new expansion Mom had gotten Neil for Christmas, and I hung out with Mom and Jane in the kitchen, enjoying the french toast bake Mom had made and gathering screencaps of the Christmas Eve festivities from yesterday and laughing to myself. It was really quite fun. Jane kept herself busy with various kitchen items Mom brought to her in her high chair. It's so nice having grandparents' houses with all the baby stuff already around to use.
Goofing around after opening gifts.
(Unfortunately I am actually writing the rest of this in early February, as I never made it back to this post.)
After visiting at Mom's we went back to the Jackson's for dinner and their Christmas family traditions. Merlene made an extensive and completely gluten free meal, even including GF bread and GF french onion rings for green bean casserole (among much else). She hadn't realized the oven had gone off while the turkey was in it, and so dinner got pushed back a bit and she lamented that a lot, but she didn't need to. She had shrimp and cocktail sauce for appetizers and frankly none of (I think) were really starving to get going anyway. Christmas always involves eating all day long.
While we waited for the turkey to catch up, the family played Buckets of Doom, which involves making up elaborate scenarios for how you are going to use random items to get out of dooming situations. It involves a lot of creativity, which the family has in spades, and they were laughing until tears in some cases.
Eventually we ate, sitting down around the bigger table in the dining room. I think it's the first time I've eaten in there since we had a fancy meal before a high school dance. Strange life.
After dinner (which was great), we tried to do Santa photos with Jack dressed as Santa. We had him get dressed in front of the kids so they could see the transition, but ultimately it didn't do the trick. Even before he put on the fake beard, Clara was nervously standing behind the couch. Josiah and Jane were too young to be concenred, but Naomi kept declaring bravely "You're not scary!" while refusing to go anywhere near Jack. After many different strategies and attempts (and some tears from Clara), we let go of the Santa pic dream and came away with this series of photos, which I actually think is hilarious and probably better than any posed pictures:
We won't sit in his lap but we will happily sit *on* him on the floor.
Jane tips over.
Josiah doesn't appreciate being adjusted.
After giving up on Santa photos, we moved on to exchanging letters and going through all the goodies Merlene always stuffs our stockings with. This is the first gluten free Christmas, so she found GF treats to replace the Christmas tree-shaped cakes she got us in the past. I was really touched by all the effort and details she thought of to make the whole celebration inclusive and safe for Clara.
Don & Merlene also got the grandkids gifts, including some pretty sweet, cozy, warm PJs, a clock puzzle for Clara, and I can't remember what all else right now. We also had some surprise gifts mailed to us from Renata: a magnetic Santa doll set and an animal puzzle that makes the noises of the animals when you put the pieces together correctly. Clara was pretty interested in that.
The letters were sweet too. In particular I like how Don & Merlene write individual letters to each of the grandkids, even though they are not yet old enough to understand. I save all those letters to show them one day.
Oh there was also gluten free cheesecake in multiple flavors for dessert, so that was awesome.
Aaron and Katie had cleverly planned ahead and brought PJs and night time stuff for their kiddos, so they put Naomi and Josiah down in Don & Merlene's room, and the rest of us (minus Dave, who was exhausted) stayed up and played some Quiplash with relatively few interruptions. Clara peacefully stood in front of the screen dancing along to the background music.
Overall it was a really relaxing and enjoyable day.
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