Christmas this year was busy. All of my sisters came home to spend Christmas with my parents. It was a very full house. On Christmas Eve we headed over to my parents around 5. My little sisters were all already there. We had made up a crock pot of soup to share with the family and my little sister Caitlin had made a different type of soup. When everything was ready we sat down to have dinner with the group. The soup went over pretty well and Jonathen even ate his entire bowl and asked for more. Usually we have to fight with the boys to get them to eat soup. We had laid my niece, Catherine, down for a small nap during dinner since she was very fussy and rubbing her eyes. When she woke up she was still rubbing her eye and it was extremely red. We discussed it and thought maybe she had gotten something in her eye that needed rinsed out. That was when I noticed a fairly long hair inside the eye that was so red. The poor little girl had an eyelash in her eye. We tried to get it out with saline eye drops and washcloths, but all we managed was to completely upset her. She would hold her eyes tightly closed and then slowly open them to see if we were going to put something else in her eye. After a few seconds she would blink and start crying all over again. She was so upset. Her parents decided to try a stream of water into her eye. They finally managed to get the eyelash to come out. Once we got her calmed down a little and fed we gathered everyone into the living room. My father read the Christmas story to us out of St. Luke. Then we sang Christmas carols. We took a few requests, but the kids were starting to get a little grumpy. After finishing the singing with "Silent Night" per custom, we headed downstairs to have each person open one present. By tradition this present usually has some sort of pajama wear in it. All of the kids got new pajamas to wear to bed and have on the next morning. Jonathen was extremely excited to see that his pajamas had Elmo on them. After everyone opened their one gift, Kyle, Wesley, Jon and I headed home to put the boys to bed. We were past their bedtime and they went to bed very quickly. I then grabbed the Santa presents and headed back over to my parents to have my dad help me with a assembly project and to set up the boys' stockings. When I got over there I brought most of the presents in and then my mom realized I was there and sent my brother-in-law Scott out to help me finish. By that time I only had one gift left to bring in and Scott didn't get to carry anything. He did however get to help me put together Kyle's office chair since it would be needed the next morning for seating. It went together pretty quickly and then all I had to do was finish putting together the Radio Flyer wagon that was Jonathen's Santa gift. I had started the project at home and then could not get the locking nuts to tighten completely since I am a little weak. My brother-in-law Don helped me there and soon my wagon was finished and ready for the next morning. During this time, my sister Caitlin had been trying to get her little girl to sleep. Catherine was extremely tired, but completely refusing to fall asleep. I even tried rocking her while Caitlin filled stockings with candy. She was quiet while I held her, but thought I was funny. Nathaniel, my baby in my belly, kept kicking her and making her giggle. Her parents finally laid her down after 11pm. I went home a little after that to get some sleep since we would be getting out of bed at 5am the next morning. When I got home, Wesley was whining and needed his covers pulled up. This proved to be how the entire night went. About every two hours Wesley would cry out and one of us (usually Kyle) would have to go tuck him back in and give him a hug. He had us awake a lot of the night. At 5am we got out of bed and woke our children up. We took Jon and Wesley to the bathroom and put slippers and coats on them and drove over to my parents house. We woke everyone there up and headed downstairs to start the present opening marathon. Wesley loves opening gifts and will help anyone who will allow him. Wesley did get the Superman toy he has been asking for since we visited my brother in October. Jonathen got the Batman that he has been requesting also. I made my boys quilts this year which took me a lot of the year. They were finished for Christmas and I didn't even have to stay up Christmas Eve to finish them. I also made a scripture bag for Wesley since he will be starting Sunbeams next Sunday. He is really excited to be going to Primary and I wanted something for him to carry all of his stuff in. We even put a missionary Book of Mormon so he has his own scriptures and everything. After all the presents were opened we headed upstairs for the traditional Christmas egg breakfast. My sibling all really enjoy this even if the do not particularly like eggs. After breakfast Kyle, the boys, and I headed home to get ready for church. We headed to church early to save seats and Kyle was in the Christmas program. We needed to sit in the front since my sister Jennifer had surgery and can't really bend her leg right now. I saved the entire front row and some of the row behind it to make sure we had enough places to sit. We did! Kyle narrated one of the songs and suprised my sisters a little bit since they had never heard Kyle's voice projected. **Kyle's voice is very deep and carries quite far. Which is why he was requested to do this.** After church we headed home, changed our clothes and went back to my parents house. Crystal's family showed up earlier than we thought and we got to spend the day with them and their kids. My boys were sleeping when the came so didn't see them until later. We had Christmas dinner around 5 and got to try to fit all of us around the table. Overall it was a wonderful Christmas and great to see all of my sisters and their families. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and was able to enjoy this Christmas season. We love you all and hope you have a Happy New Year too.
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| Jonathen and Aunt Jennifer with Jon's present from Grandma and Grandpa Meyers |
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| Wesley and his present from Santa. (A "giant" Superman) |
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| The boys and our Christmas tree. |
