The Draper 2010 Christmas

Christmas was spent at home this year. We spent the few weeks Tom had off from school just hanging around and doing as much yet as little as possible - if that makes sense.

We did our usual mass production of fattening sweets to whichever friends and neighbors were still in town a few days before Christmas. It was so much fun to go visit everyone at their houses and the kids loved coming along.

On Christmas Eve we had the missionaries over and had a ham dinner with sweet potatoes, green beans, and rolls. And sparkling grape juice...I don't even like it that much but it just seems weird to drink plain water at a Christmas Eve dinner.

Here is a picture of the tree this year. If certain spots look bare, just know that it is because a certain little girl kept exclaiming "Oh no!" as she would pluck an ornament from the tree and disassemble it. It was the "Oh no!" part that threw me, mostly because it didn't really look accidental at all.

After we read the Christmas story and chipped another ear off the donkey in the manger set, we let the kids open their gift from Tom's mom - new pajamas.

They both loved the ones they got...can't you tell by Braden's face how excited he is? :) Here are the pictures of them dressed for bed...you'll notice that it took three tries and telling them to stop smiling to get a picture where one of them is not making an "overzealous" smile.




Christmas Day was just relaxed and fun. It was a little bit weird to just have it be us, with no other plans or visitors or anything. But it was also really nice to just let the kids enjoy their presents and to spend time together.

Braden got the rocket ship he has been asking Santa for for the past 6 months. It is definitely the most beloved toy right now at our house.

The kids also got a house for their "people". They spend a lot of time playing with the people and making them impersonate all of us. With the addition of the rocket ship, the people are now not only living in a house but also taking excursions to the moon with the astronauts. So it is all working together quite nicely :)

Oh, I also made the kids chef costumes and they got some other "pretend" costumes from my parents. Braden has been in imagination heaven pretending to be a firefighter and a doctor and a dentist.

And Keri got a tea set from my parents as well...I forgot to take a picture but the other day we had a lovely tea party and drank four full teapots of water! Let's just say that repetition is big at her age...

Other than that, the kids each got a book. I heard the idea from someone awhile back to give your kids four gifts each year..."something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read." I like it because it is relatively simple and keeps Christmas gifts from getting too out of control, which can detract from the real reasons for the holiday in the first place. And it feels like something that will be doable even as our family grows and there are more kids. It worked pretty well this year so I think we will stick to it until further notice :)

Here is Keri and Daddy with her "something to read":

And that is how the Draper Christmas of 2010 went down. I hope yours was wonderful too!