Merry Christmas!

On Christmas morning the kids gave us the most welcome present of sleeping in. We didn’t get started on the morning until around 8:30, and the kids didn’t start opening presents until 9am.

I was a little apprehensive because I scaled back a little this year on presents; we are short on money and we don’t have space in the house for more stuff. All of the kids were so wonderful and didn’t appear to notice that there were slightly fewer presents. They admired each present they got and warmed our hearts with their appreciation.

Lydia made this amazing calendar for Abe and me. It has cute pictures of her dressed up in props for each month of the year. Her teacher is amazing!
This sweet card was from Lydia. “Dere Mom and Dad I Love you. I am sree (sorry) if some times I am mene (mean) to you. I hop (hope) Santa brings you a lot presents this year.”
I love Lydia’s drawings.
This present from Mary warmed my heart so much. “I love my family because my mom does piano with me. Mary Darais”
Mary opening her gift from Lydia.
Mary was thrilled with Lydia’s pictures for her.

Honestly, I could probably have just gotten Mary one coloring book and she would have been happy. She had to be reminded to open her other presents because she liked coloring in her new book so much, and later when she headed into the snow, she declared that snow was the only thing she really wanted for Christmas–and she got it!

Lydia rolled this snowball all by herself and pushed it to the fort by herself. We were amazed.

Mary is happy to be sitting in the only thing she really wanted for Christmas: Snow!
Ammon LOVED the snow and did not want to come back inside when it was time for lunch. He cried when we forced him inside again.
The kids begged Nick to play with them, and Nick kindly obliged.

Nick joined us for lunch. We had soufflé, citrus salad, panetone, spiced nuts, wassail and homemade hot cocoa.

Then Abe, Clarissa, and I napped during Ammon’s quiet time. The girls played nicely together while we napped, and then I got up and cooked The Feast of the Seven Fishes. Originally I thought I hadn’t succeeded and only cooked six fishes, but I tallied it after the fact and realized that indeed, we made it to seven! Here’s how:

Cioppino: Mussels, clams, halibut, and shrimp

Spaghetti with anchovy sauce: Anchovies

Arugula, blood orange, and scallop salad: Scallops

Slow roasted salmon with lemon and thyme: Salmon.

See? Seven!

   

This is me during half of Christmas dinner. Clarissa wanted to eat, too. 🙂

After dinner we exchanged gifts and ate Karin’s dessert, a berry cake and berry turnovers.

David with Walter, David and Olivia’s new French bulldog puppy. He was the star of the show.
Walter wanted so badly to stay awake for the excitement, but he kept falling asleep in spite of himself.

This was truly a delightful Christmas. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel too crazy even with all of the cooking and celebrating. I just loved the whole day.