Christmas

We finally made it to Christmas! The Christmas tree and lights have been put up. The cards have been printed and sent. The treats have been baked and delivered. All the presents are under the tree. And school is finally over...for now.

It looks like everyone got pretty good grades this semester. Although the girls' grades won't be official until some time after their break. We know Christian, at least, got excellent grades.

Marian arrived on Christmas Eve for our annual Christmas get together. Christian slow roasted our prime rib roast, courtesy of Marian, half the day. The kids washed and vacuumed out Marian's car for her.

After our feast, Marian watched the kids practice their organ a bit to see what they've been working on. Then, we came back to watch a movie together and called it a night.

We opened presents on Christmas morning.

Presents were not quite what the kids thought they would be this year. They got put on Santa Marian's  "naughty" list. Apparently, over the summer, they made a deal with Marian to do 20 hours of service for her. She gave them a bunch of stuff they wanted for it. Well, when the deadline came, they hadn't done anything. Caitlyn made a slight attempt to do something and put in 3 hours. Emily just argued that the service was supposed to be at Marian's house...not ours.

So, Marian still packed her car and the tree with tons of gifts but there was a twist to them. The candy in their stocking was expired. The presents they opened were not really for them exactly. Some of them were actually for Christian or myself. Some of it was just household goods that we can all use like toilet paper and canned goods. There were even treats included that they would not be allowed to eat.

Emily was not very amused. Caitlyn mostly took it in stride as she figured they deserved it. Luckily, Marian had left some real gifts for them back in July so they did get a couple of real gifts from her.

They also got gifts from us.

They also got presents from Grandma Cheri. Grandpa had brought them down from Oregon earlier this month.

We got a bunch of treats and she made us all new slippers. They are really warm and comfy. So, they got a good share of presents still so don't cry for them. She is going to give them another chance to get their ours in before their birthdays or who knows what will happen then!

We had our annual Belgian waffles for breakfast. Plus Caitlyn's friend dropped off some cinnamon rolls for our family last night so we had a combination of that for our breakfast. 

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We went to my brother's house for Christmas dinner to meet up with my family. Christian made us some fresh sausages and barbecued them on my brother's grill. I made dessert. My brother made us a Christmas goose. It was the first time we got to try goose. It was pretty expensive and I didn't think that it tasted that unique from duck. Also, I think my brother's oven was too hot so the goose ended up being a little tough. My mom made some sticky rice and my sister made some bbq pork and vegetables.

After dinner, the kids got some more gifts. We had dessert and took their annual Christmas pictures together. My sister's boys were so tall before. Now all the younger kids are starting to shoot up. It is funny to compare the previous years' pictures to the present.