How We Spent Christmas Day

I have to say that this Christmas made me a little nervous because it was our first one as our small little family.  We decided this year not to go back for Christmas and spend our money on a cruise last summer.  We've never spent Christmas together.  Even back in the states we traveled to California to spend with our cousins or the girls visited their Dad in Utah.  The girls were pretty nervous and because they're one of the older cousins in the Schultz family, they really hold the Christmas traditions as super important.  They were pretty nervous they wouldn't have a good year, but I assured them that most of the extended family was doing their own thing anyway.  They gave it a chance.   I think it turned out awesome.  Here's how we spent Christmas Day.

Christmas Morning

The favorite tradition!  waiting on the stairs for Christmas presents.  They wait until everyone is ready and then when the parents are ready at the bottom, they run down the stairs to see what Santa had brought.  They're allowed to look into their stocking and open any presents inside.  Then we started passing out the Homemade Presents.

Homemade Presents

To see what our Homemade Present tradition is, click here for the first post.

Present Opening

After we opened our Homemade Christmas presents, we also opened the rest of the presents under the tree. Another tradition the girls love is handing out the presents one at a time.  Then we all open one present at the same time, then go around the room and show everyone what they got.  This year I think was a really great Christmas. They got almost everything on their list and I was, for the first time, not nervous they were going to be disappointed.

I didn't catch very many pictures, but here are a few.  There's a video about 3 pictures down, which is of the big present we're getting them this year. We couldn't get a real one because of other circumstances, so we'll have to look in the next few weeks.  

Christmas Dinner

Xoe and Xanthe love having people over for dinner, so we invited a family for Christmas Dinner.   At the last minute they all got sick.  We weren't sure what to do for Christmas Dinner until at the last minute we received an invitation from the Bushman family.  My friend, Jenni, was visiting with her friend, Sammy, and I hadn't been able to see them yet.  I was so excited to go see them and it was perfect timing. we had a fabulous time.

One of my favorite moments was when Jenni's mother asked us to sing.  We weren't prepared so we just sort of sat down playing through Christmas songs.  We didn't sing anything as a performance, we just sort of sang at the piano.  We had such a great time, a lot of laughs and a ton of Christmas Spirit.  One of my favorite Christmases for sure.

Christmas Movie Night

One of our long-standing family Christmas traditions is to go to the movies on Christmas Day.  We left the Bushman's house to go to the movies on base.  The only movie was Walking with Dinosaurs in 3-D, one that Spencer has been counting down the days to see.  The girls reluctantly joined us but it was a fun family night.

What a great Christmas!!!  I love our little family!