Just like that...

It has always amazed me how quickly Christmas is done once Christmas Day arrives. It seems to be over with a snap of a finger...all that anticipation and excitement and SNAP it is over, just like that! *sigh* I wish it could last a little longer...maybe that is why I leave my Christmas decorations up until New Year's ha ha. I try to hold onto it as long as I can.

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas weekend started by us heading up to Kent's Mom's  house (Innisfail) Christmas Eve morning. All of Kent's siblings and their families were there except for Mike and his family. Gary had to work that day so he wasn't able to be there until the evening, but we were glad they came when they could.

There was LOT'S of food and Deb had made ham, scallop potatoes and veggies for all of us to have in the afternoon. It was so good! Let's just say there was some MAJOR weight gain this weekend LOL!


I had bought these Christmas tree foil cake pans that came with lids from the dollar store. 

 I thought it would be fun for us to make Rice Krispies in them and then have each family decorate them with icing and candies. They all had a good time and there were some very creative Christmas trees =)

Here is a few of the finished products.

Brynley and Avery were hanging out in Deb's room watching T.V. while we were doing the Rice Krispie trees and we figured we would let them be since they were happy there. They were both spaced right out watching the show LOL!

The Nativity

Deb has asked me to organize the nativity scene that we have all the kids act out. I had emailed everyone ahead of time to bring what they wanted to use in the nativity (costumes and what not). 

 Getting everyone ready to come down for the Nativity was a little bit crazy. Kent read the nativity from the scriptures and the kids came down the stairs as there part was read. It didn't go as well as planned ha ha, but it was a good try. Lot's of pictures taken and memories made.

 Tyson (Joseph) Brooklynn- 2 1/2 weeks old (Baby Jesus)

The Nativity once it was done.


 Thijs (sheep), Avery (unicorn horse), Brynley (star), Roel (Inn Keeper), Kori (Mary), Tyson (Joseph), Brooklynn (Baby Jesus), Lucas, Cole and Taylor (3 Wise men), Joshua, Logan (Shepard's) Jade (Angel)


Now, for those of you who have noticed there was a unicorn listed in the play...yes, we are very well aware that there was actually NO unicorn in the real nativity. But, we were trying to be creative and improvise and have fun with what we all had. We needed an animal for the nativity and Melanie had the unicorn costume and Ta-Da...it was fun! Actually Brynley was supposed to be the Unicorn, but she was flipping out when she saw what Avery was going to be (star). So they switched. Thanks for doing that Melanie =)

 After the nativity was done we started to sing Christmas songs that the kids would know. I thought that was fun and everyone even sang. 

most of our audience

Games
When the Stanford's get together there are ALWAYS games, games and more games played. One of our favorites is the unwrapping game. 

Treats that have been wrapped over and over and taped very well.

Kent teaching everyone the rules and how to play the game.

Kori, Nanny (Deb) and Roel watching everyone play the unwrapping game. They are sitting up on the stairs so they are out of the way as they can get a little crazy when playing this fun game.

You have 2 sets of dice going around in bowls (so you can roll them in it) and when your roll let's say a 7 or an 11 you pass the dice and then you go take everything from the person in the middle trying to open the present. You have to hurry to get everything put on (hat, gloves, jacket etc) so you can start opening the present before someone rolls the numbers and comes and takes it away from you. You are trying to be the one who opens the gift so you can win what is inside. Really fun game!


We played lot's of different board games and card games through out the day together.
 

Pajamas 
 I had been working on making our family matching Christmas pajamas for a while. I kept procrastinating and not doing them...why? I am not sure as it wasn't hard to do, just LOT'S to do!

It is tradition in our family to open one gift on Christmas Eve. That gift is always new jammies.

 The boys all had matching colors and us girls had matching colors. All of our pajama bottom material was the same just different colors.

Our matching jammies! 

I bought each of us a shirt to go with our jammies and then cut out a Maple Leaf from the material that matched our bottoms and appliqued them onto the shirts. This was my first time doing applique and it was all good until I did the stitching around the maple leaf. That was A LOT harder than I had anticipated! Oh well, it is what it is and they are done. I am happy with how they all turned out.

I had to laugh as one of my nephews said to my son, 
 "you can tell your Mom made those."

And Cole said, "well, good, because she did make them."

And then he said, "no, you can tell the shirts are home made because of the sewing around the maple leaf, you can see it and it doesn't look very nice, it looks home made."

Cole said, "you are supposed to be able to see the stitching, that is the style." 

He said, "oh." 

Cole said, "can you tell she made the pajama bottoms?" 

 he said, "no she didn't." 

Cole laughed and said "yes she made those too." 

I don't think he believed Cole LOL!

Thanks to Debbie for having us all at your home and making such a yummy dinner for us all...love you!!