We did a few things out of tradition:
1. On Christmas Eve we open presents with my dad's side of the family. We usually sort the presents out to the respective person and then open them one at a time in birth order. This year my Aunt Karen suggested we try something different and randomly grab a present under the tree and have that person open it. When that person is opening his or her present all eyes must be on that person! This part caused problems because one person would leave the room, or someone would start a conversation, etc. My cousin Derek solved this problem by grabing a present under the tree then announce, "This present is to Laura from Cody!" in a great announcer voice. Then the whole family would cheer, we don't know for whom, but we cheered. All in all Aunt Karen had a great idea, we all laughed and had a great time.
2. My dad had to work on Christmas day :(. Luckily, we was patrolling in a nearby city so he was able to come home to open presents. We knew that if he looked lost and was staring into space he was listening to his radio in his ear that none of us could hear. Ja and I made breakfast for everyone. We made cottage cheese pancakes and eggs. Apparently no one in my family likes cottage cheese so they were call concerned about the pancakes. When we presented them with the pancakes we told them we changed our minds and didn't make the cottage cheese kind. After they said the pancakes were really good, we told them they did have cottage cheese in them. They were very surprised!
3. On Christmas we decided to make ginger bread houses for the first time. Thank goodness for Ralphs being open on Christmas for people like us who change their mind and need to buy load of candy and graham crackers. I really had a great time making 2 houses. As you can see my first house had a roof cave-in because a huge avalanche fell on it. Even the "For Sale" sign fell over.
Jill and Ja worked really hard on their house. It was the quietest they have ever been.
It was the biggest and had a great roof. Ja was the architect and Jill was the decorator. They had a car, a pond with ducks, and a snowman who kept falling into the pond.
My dad started with just two graham crackers and some frosting. It was his Indian tent house. Then he started building a real house. He even added Rudolph the Red-noised bear to the side of his house. He also made a man who is playing frisbee.
Kenny started making a huge house. He got the walls up then realized it was going to be hard to put a roof on such a big structure. He opted for the flat roof with a support beam inside. He said it looked like a temple so he made a sign that said "Holiness to the Lord." For some odd reason he put blue frosting on the roof so it turned into a Jewish church.
Jill's friend Shawn came over because his dad is Jewish and wasn't celebrating Christmas and Shawn wanted to take part in something Christmas-y. This was his first house and he definitely made the most modern looking house.
Unfortunately we didn't get a good picture of my second house. The roof wass a lot simpler and I made sure to not put anything heavy on it.
3. Usually we visit with my mom's side of the family on Christmas. Since Stacie and Randy came into town late we decided to get together on the 26th so Stacie and Randy could be there. We had a great time there opening presents too. My 4 cousins, who are 12 and under, are a wild bunch which makes for fun present opening.
4. We saw Wicked again with my sister Stacie. We had great seats, and the musical was still amazing the third time through.
5. Ja and I went to Hawaii with his parents and 2 younger brothers. We had such a great time. We stayed in Honolulu and did so many things! We went parasailing, on an outrigger, spent a whole day at Pearl Harbor, and went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and Dole Plantation.
Now we are back in California settling into our new life.
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