Family Christmas (a.k.a. "Christmas Adam")

Back when Mark and I were dating and first married we began the tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve- Eve together, just the two of us.  That usually consisted of going to see a movie and out for Mexican food, for some strange reason.  But it became tradition, the very fact that we would take the time to spend some alone time together before the hustle and bustle of the holidays were upon us.

Once we had kids and especially once we moved up to Wisconsin, our holidays began to include more hustle and bustle than ever before.  Two sides of the family that wanted to see us for each holiday, two hours of driving to get to said family's homes, packing up and driving with small kids and spending multiple nights away from home.  The stress of the holidays just became multiplied so it was more important than ever to declare Christmas Eve-Eve as "Family Christmas" ... the day when just the 3 of us, then just the 4 of us, and now just the 5 of us spend time together.  We exchange our family gifts and a few years ago the kids started calling this special day "Christmas Adam" because Adam comes before Eve, you know : )





the kids all ready to give mommy her gifts: a painting, a homemade calendar, and a few homemade ornaments for the tree



Jenna and Kara give daddy their carefully selected gifts: a mama and baby elephant from Kara and a Nerf basketball set from Jenna



daddy got an air hockey table from Jack



Jenna and Kara look over their Shutterfly books from mommy




Jenna and Kara with their texters from mom and dad




Jack oversees the present opening

 Not all gifts given were captured on film.  This year the gifts also included:

• an earring holder and ZhuZhu huskie dog, from Kara to Jenna
• a Crib Life doll, from Jenna to Kara
• a pillow pet monkey from Jenna and Kara to Jack
• a calendar and Rockey and CeeCee purse for each of the girls from Jack

Later that night mommy and daddy exchanged their gifts.  Mommy got a netbook from daddy and daddy got an iPod touch from mommy.  Lots of electronics this year!

My favorite part of the whole day was the fact that each of the kids was more excited about the gifts they were giving to their brother or sister or parents than the ones they were receiving.  When we said it was time to exchange gifts not one of them jumped first for a package with their own names on it but rather for a special gift that they had selected for someone else and couldn't wait to give.

Seeing the kids experience the true joy of giving was truly a joy for me.