This year it was our turn with the Harrison side for Christmas and as tradition has it, we all got together for Christmas Eve at my Mom and Dad’s house in Alpine. Christmas for me is always magical and I have always loved the way my Mom goes all out and the many traditions she has set in place. From putting out Luminaries and lighting the way for Christ to come, to singing carols, to opening new pajamas, to getting a big family gift (usually a game we play that night), to reading the account of Christs Birth and singing happy birthday to him, to playing the white elephant game, to eating delicious cream cheese cookies and steak and shrimp cocktail. (which actually was debated this year because according to my memory growing up, my family always had steak and shrimp cocktail on Christmas Eve, but according to my Mom’s memory, which is usually more accurate than mine, we only had steak and shrimp one Christmas Eve. None-the-less, in my oober selective memory mind, steak and shrimp is a tradition, and therefore something we now do in our little Egbert family.)
Christmas Eve was absolutely wonderful though and I loved that my entire family was able to be together to celebrate the season! We started out with a wonderful meal of honey baked ham, cheesy potatoes, peas, green bean casserole, jello, shrimp, rolls, and grape juice mixed with sprite! So yummy! Then the boys went out and set up Luminaries while us girls cleaned up from dinner and did the dishes. Afterwords we took some family pictures and then opened some fun gifts Aunt Shannon got for all the kids (their very own cereal bowls with their names on them) and then I gave all the kid boys in the family play swords, (a huge hit) while the girls got their own little barbie doll. Some pics from the night.
Jess, Mason, & Shannon
Cute Collin Playing
A true picture of what its like at the Harrison house!
I made fun of Adam’s hat being so high on his head. He didn’t like the mockery!
More Crafting and coloring fun!
Cute Cousins!
So fun!
All the boys with their Dads!
All the girls with their Moms!
My sister Jess and her darling family
The precious people in my life!
My youngest brother Luke and his cute fam!
Mom and Dad with all the Grandkids! (13 total)
Getting ready to open presents!
My husband the Super Hero!
Then us adults all got our turn for presents by playing the white elephant game. This year each couple brought 4 gifts that you COULD NOT spend money on. We had some terribly funny gifts from a box of Electronic junk (from Adam consisting of all sorts of worthless computer stuff) to a framed picture of Jake as employee of the month (which is terribly funny considering he’s the only employee, and works for my Dad!) It was really quite fun.
Later we let the kids open their Christmas Pajamas and then our kids opened up our family gift this year which was a bean bag toss game that we set up downstairs for the kids to play.
The best shot (out of probably 10 pictures) of the three boys in their new PJ’s
After that I read the kids a story about the symbols of Christmas, to help them understand that Christmas really is about our Savior, and then we got out a candle and a picture of the savior and sang Happy Birthday.
We finished the evening by playing DDR in one room on Luke’s Wii, and PS3 games in the other room. It was an absolutely wonderful Night spent with some of my very favorite people!