For dinner I prepared a "Bethlehem Meal." This consisted of our traditional Guatemalan Paches, nuts, fruit, bread, veggie straws, etc. all in baskets as in Bethlemem. I tried to make everything seem as peaceful and humble as possible. We turned off the lights and at by candle light that night. I just wanted us to have a more reverent feeling for this night. I think it worked. The kids really liked it so I think we will continue with it for years to come.
After dinner we read from the New Testament in Luke and watched the LDS video clips just released by the church. Neither the kids or I were in any of those scenes but it was great to see a final project from the filming. But they are soooo amazing! Here is a link to watch them: LDS Bible Videos
After we remembered the true meaning of Christmas then it was time for presents. It's tradition in Guatemala to open presents on Christmas Eve (more like midnight on Christmas Eve but we do it a little earlier because midnight? really? How can Santa come then?). So we open the exchange gifts (we each get a name of another extended family member and buy for them a special gift). We open any gifts from the F side of the family. It's a crazy but bonding time for everyone (I think). We had a Bethlehem dessert (flan) before everyone went home.
After the fun of presents the kids get in their pj's and we try to get them to go to bed. After all Santa is coming...
Christmas Day was a little bit different this year because it happened on Christmas Day. Santa came but left all of the presents in big sacks because he knew we needed to go to church first before the viewing of the gifts. This helped a lot because we could focus our attention on Christ in the morning and allow us time to get ready. We had 9:00am Sacrament Meeting. It was a beautiful program with a narration by a family, a few musical numbers and the Choir. KC, C, CR and I sang in the choir.
When we got home we changed and then went to look at what Santa had brought. Just a small breakdown of the gifts:
K = Serger
KC & L = Tablets
Then we went down stairs and opened all of our gifts. For years we have been coming up with some other names to put on the presents instead of our own names and only the parents know who is who. This helped when the kids were young from comparing who had how many presents and the shaking trying to figure our what was inside. So we continue that tradition and this year we had "Dumbledore's Army" names from Harry Potter. So first the kids have to guess who they think everyone is and then we divide up and open. We take turns going in a circle and opening one present at a time. It takes some time to do it this way but this way we get to see what everyone gets.
After presents we had to get ready to go to the M's house. KC made is awesome egg nog and Z&J made Shrimp Etufe. It was all delicious!
We then had the program put on by the kids.
We stayed and made plans for the week and then we went home. G was so extremely tired that she was crying for everything. So we were glad to get her to bed.
On Monday night for family home evening we finished off the Christmas celebrations by going to Temple Square to see the lights! We also went to dinner at Pei-Wei. It was a fun family night. G was much happier today and had lots and lots of energy!
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