It's the Holiday Season

Or it was about a month ago...

I meant to blog about all of this sooner, but I just didn't get around to it. Somehow the lure of reading was stronger than that of blogging. I have been watching my friend's blogs, and for the most part they have been slow on posting their Christmas pictures as well, so I figured I was ok. But one by one they are catching up, and so I suppose it is time for me to do the same. A rainy Sunday seemed to be a good time to do it. (*Note - I swear I had more pictures, but upon searching for them on my camera and the computer, I can't find a bunch of them. I know I had a recording of Jon doing the Hannukah Song, plus pictures from Christmas Day, and yet they are gone...I have tried to find tham but they seem to be gone for good...)

As in years past, we spent Christmas Eve with the Joyners and their long-time family friends the Alstons. This Christmas Eve tradition is centered around a Mexican-Italian feast, complete with tamales, beans, rice, ravioli, Caesar salad, and garlic bread, among other things. As per usual, the children dressed up as the people (and animals) from the nativity story, and there was a brief reading of scripture. (As the professional costumer of the nativity, I had my hands full!) Following the spiritual thoughts, the program progressed in the typical fashion - Jon playing his guitar and singing while some of us joined in. (Normally Jake plays too, but he wasn't here this year.) One thing that was not typical, however, was a special visit from Santa Clause. It turns out he knows the Alstons personally, and wanted to pay a visit to the children (although I suspect he was in it mostly for the tamales!)

After the party we came home and hustled the children to bed in order to precipitate the readying of the presents for Christmas morning and the arrival of a certain man in red. The kids all donned their traditional Christmas jammies - Jonathan, upon being handed his, took in a sharp breath and then said "Jammies - I don't believe it!" with his hand over his mouth like it was the biggest and best surprise ever - despite the fact that they weren't wrapped. While the children were nestled all snug in their beds, there were no visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads for quite a while. We had to bide our time while we waited for them to drop off to sleep just in case they came out while we were preparing things. While they slept, Santa decorated the living room with tinsel, white garland, and snowflakes. He also ate the tamales left for him (in the Joyner house we figure he must get tired of all those cookies and need something a little more filling.)

Christmas morning was spent in the hustle of unwrapping and went by in something of a blur. I had to keep asking the kids to wait to open their next present, both to stretch out the time (since there wasn't a ton to open) and also so that I could actually see them opening the things we bought them. It was a nice morning, though busy and quick.

After breakfast, we got ready and headed up to my dad's for Christmas Part 2. We have an early dinner there - prime rib that is absolutely WONDERFUL. It was a very nice afternoon, and bled into the evening with some visiting and playing of games. By the time we left for home, we were all sleepy and ready to find our beds. It was another nice Christmas, though it did seem rather like a hit and run. One of these years I swear that I am going to have everything ready and the way I would like it so that I can enjoy it throughout December...