Christmas 2021

Mini Light Bright--A Christmas tree by April

Christmas is over and we survived! It was a good year for our family and we were certainly blessed to have such a good Christmas this year. Today was a peaceful day of being together as a family enjoying the gifts everyone received.

Christmas Eve is where we should start though. We spent most of the day down in Springfield at Michele's parent's house visiting, making pizza, and exchanging gifts. It was a nice day with his family. After that, we drove back home to begin our family Christmas "white elephant" gift exchange. The kids chose to do a white elephant gift exchange in lieu of pajamas for our Christmas eve present opening. I kinda missed the pajamas this year, but this turned out to be a fun thing for all.

April got pretty creative with the wrapping too...

We set all the presents in a pile in the middle of the living room and exchanged them one by one. It was supposed to be a sort of funny gift that the person receiving might think was funny. We had some good laughs for some of the gifts, and some were just fun. All were great. It was fun to see the thought that went into these gifts.

Now onto Christmas day...

The stockings are about the only thing I got pictures of. First we have Salem's stocking (the cat). I don't usually get anything for the cat, but I just couldn't resist this Stranger Things arcade and scratching box.

Alex's stocking...

April's stocking...

Mom and Dad's stocking...

Aaron's stocking...

Aric's stocking...

Our tree this year just before I went to bed on Christmas Eve. 

The kids' gifts this year were all large in cost, not actual size. It's interesting how their "piles" change over the years as they get older. Less bulky toys, more electronics or necessities. They each pretty much got one big gift and a few smaller things. April received a Stand Up Paddle Board. Aaron received a new computer chair, Aric a phone, and Alex a basketball hoop (which was actually more for his birthday). It was fun to see them enjoy what they got today.

Salem finally came out to enjoy his gift for about 2 minutes in the afternoon. Long enough to snap these pictures (below), then he was gone. He must have thought the living room was too crazy most of the day because he just wasn't around.

Merry Christmas!