We had our Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight (a tradition at the Urbancic house). It was Mike and Holly, Amy and Steve, Nate and Katie and Dan and Aranne. We then read the Christmas story in the bible (Luke 2) and also a Christmas book which Holly had chosen (also a Urbancic holiday tradition).
After our dinner and stories on Christmas Eve the night gets a little louder with games and laughter. This year it was Catch Phrase. The girls kicked butt and beat the boys 3 to 1.. it was a sad showing on their part.
Christmas morning it is not as bright and early as it once was but around 8:30 or so we all were up and in our "jammies" ready for Christmas to finally start. We had the "traditional" stairs picture taken and then the party could start. Mike, Maile and Ellie would be joining us later from Tuscon.
We now draw names... Nate and Katie had Amy and Steve, and Amy and Steve had Nate and Katie... Mike and Maile had Aranne and Dan, and Aranne and Dan had Mike and Maile.. Funny how that worked out this year. This was Amy and Steve being really excited out an outdoor fire pit for their new house that they got from Nate and Katie.
Steve is a HUGE kid at heart. We was very excited to get a Mr. Potato Head from mom and dad and more than willing to show it off. It was an Arizona Diamondbacks Mr. Potato Head after all, not just any Mr. Potato Head. That is going front and center on his desk at work.
Mike and Maile got us some themed gifts this year and they were great; all having to do with SNOW... I got a beautiful snowflake necklace. Dan got a extreme snowboard DVD and then we both got a Snowboard edition of Monopoly. We got them Citypass tickets for things to do around San Francisco (where they now live) and hope they will be able to take advantage of that. I also made them a small scrapbook to put pictures of their adventures in when they are finished. Hope they liked it!
This had to be the best gift ever. Ellie got this beautiful PURPLE dress from Auntie Katie and Uncle Nate (and they scored BIG points). Her favorite color is purple and she loves princess stuff, so this dress was a huge hit. She had to put it on right away and spin around in it. She didn't even want to take it off for dinner.
Christmas was great. The best part was being able to spend time with family and create these wonderful memories and laugh together. We enjoyed the time that we had and look forward to being together again.
3 comments:
We had so much fun with you guys! It's always so great to see you! We're sorry we didn't get a chance to say goodbye to you, but we hope the drive home wasn't that bad and everything is going well with you!
Those dog pics. are so cute! I am glad you had a good Christmas. Next time we stop by we'll have to play snowboarding monopoly
Hiya! Cool blog! It was GREAT to see you at Christmas! I have to tell you that the scrapbook and CityPasses you gave us were the highlight of our Christmas gifts. We can't wait to use them! Many hugs to you guys!
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