Treading Water: Christmas

Friday, December 25, 2015

Christmas

We've spent a wonderful few days together.

Wednesday night was the annual Perazzo clan caroling and cookie drop. We sang "Silent Night" and "We wish You a Merry Christmas" like always. The weather was accommodating and we had a great time. Eighteen stops or so and then pizza, doughnuts, and hot chocolate at grandma's and grandpa's. Some watched a basketball game and some played games. Excellent evening with family and friends.

Santa Claus rice crispy treats

Taste of Home almond bon bon cookies

The day before Christmas brought some snow flurries, but sadly it didn't stick, so we didn't have a white Christmas. We are thankful and excited that the mountains got their share, though.

this is as deep as the snow got at our house, but it was gone within an hour

Ryan ran out to roll in the snow. There was hardly any, but it was very cold out there.

At sunset on Christmas Eve, we lit our bayberry candle, which is my family's New England tradition to bring good luck in the New Year.

We had company for Christmas Eve dinner. As I was setting the table, I only had 5 good glasses for 9 people. The kids ran and got one of my presents from under the tree and had me open it. It was a new set of glasses!

This is how the glasses were wrapped!

ready for dinner on Christmas Eve

After dinner, Ryan read the Cajun Night Before Christmas to us and we read Luke 2 together. How grateful we are for our Lord and Savior and this time of year when we focus more on His birth and mission. Beautiful evening.

Since 3 of our 4 kids were out playing with their cousins, Glen and I hit the hot tub at 10:30 and enjoyed the moon popping in and out of the clouds. Gorgeous.

Glen soaking while it was snowing earlier in the day

spooky, almost

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. This was the first year I made an overnight crockpot breakfast casserole, plus our favorite almond cream cheese rolls. Delicious.

With the 3 trees, it took 5 minutes for the kids to find the hidden pickle. It was a riot with the kids racing back and forth not knowing which tree the pickle was on. Ryan found the pickle and earned the right to put on the Santa hat and pass out the first gift.

if Alex had looked more to his right, he might have found it

if Eric had looked higher, he might have found it

Ryan wins (man, we really need to wear better pjs on Christmas morn)

???

My favorite gift this year came from my sister. It's a DNA testing kit! I can't wait to see what it says about our ancestry, to see if there are any surprises.

The funniest gift I got was from Hannah. It's a banana keeper so my bananas don't get bruised in my lunch bag!

Hannah and Eric mainly got things for them to use when they are away at school next semester.

We gave Ryan an alarm clock that works by gradually increasing the amount of light in the room to gently awaken you--it's been on his wish list for a while. Can't wait to hear if it works or not.

Alex got a bunch of games, of course. We played 7 Wonders Duel already. I really like it. We love 7 Wonders, but this is for only 2 and is a bit simpler.

I guess it wasn't a very exciting Christmas for Glen as his main gift was a new vacuum cleaner, but there's a story behind that, of course (just not worth the effort to type however)...

And we all got Brookings, Oregon sweatshirts from my parents.