Christmas 2008
We had a terrific Christmas this year! Our holiday started with the annual Duerden family dinner party on Christmas Eve. It was a great blessing that mom was able to prepare almost all of the dinner. It wasn’t very long ago that we weren’t sure that mom would even be around this Christmas, let alone make dinner! Tradition has it that we always listen to the Osmond Family Christmas album during dinner – things must have been crazy, because somehow we neglected to turn it on, oh the horror of it all! Regardless, dinner was quite enjoyable.
After dinner we sang a few Christmas carols,
and then we had the annual reading of the Christmas Story from the bible by mom.
Along with the story we usually have the youngest children hold up stick puppets representing the key characters. Unfortunately we were reminded of the severity of mom’s memory loss when she didn’t even remember that we had ever used the puppets. Since the babies were so little anyway, we opted not to use them. Mom started reading, but soon realized that she couldn’t see well enough, so I had to finish for her. Normally the reading of the story is a very quiet, solemn occasion but this year the words of the story were interrupted by a little something we call “Nativity Wrestling”. The match began when Kalel tackled Tristan who together fell on Corbin. Soon all three of them were wrestling on the ground, Corbin under duress.
After the Christmas Story it was time for presents! We exchange all of our family gifts at this time. It was so fun to let Kalel, Tristan, and Corbin deliver the gifts and then help open them. Kalel took it upon himself to be the garbage collector and spent the entire evening picking up every last scrap of wrapping paper and putting it in the trash!
Once everyone had their fill of food, gifts, and laughter, we retired to our house for the opening of one gift. It wasn’t hard to choose which gift because according to tradition there is ONLY one gift per person under the tree! Surprise! The gift contained Christmas Jammies! This year Shandra and Kalel spent the night at our house, so we all changed into our jammies, blew up an air mattress, and then relaxed for a Christmas movie. Kim and I decided that it would be better for us to sleep on the mattress because it was in the family room, and we felt that we needed to be available to help Santa. Besides, we didn’t want any little children spying!
After dinner we sang a few Christmas carols,
and then we had the annual reading of the Christmas Story from the bible by mom.
Along with the story we usually have the youngest children hold up stick puppets representing the key characters. Unfortunately we were reminded of the severity of mom’s memory loss when she didn’t even remember that we had ever used the puppets. Since the babies were so little anyway, we opted not to use them. Mom started reading, but soon realized that she couldn’t see well enough, so I had to finish for her. Normally the reading of the story is a very quiet, solemn occasion but this year the words of the story were interrupted by a little something we call “Nativity Wrestling”. The match began when Kalel tackled Tristan who together fell on Corbin. Soon all three of them were wrestling on the ground, Corbin under duress.
After the Christmas Story it was time for presents! We exchange all of our family gifts at this time. It was so fun to let Kalel, Tristan, and Corbin deliver the gifts and then help open them. Kalel took it upon himself to be the garbage collector and spent the entire evening picking up every last scrap of wrapping paper and putting it in the trash!
Once everyone had their fill of food, gifts, and laughter, we retired to our house for the opening of one gift. It wasn’t hard to choose which gift because according to tradition there is ONLY one gift per person under the tree! Surprise! The gift contained Christmas Jammies! This year Shandra and Kalel spent the night at our house, so we all changed into our jammies, blew up an air mattress, and then relaxed for a Christmas movie. Kim and I decided that it would be better for us to sleep on the mattress because it was in the family room, and we felt that we needed to be available to help Santa. Besides, we didn’t want any little children spying!
Christmas morning there are rules that need to be followed:
First no one is allowed to wake up mom and dad until after 7:00 a.m. It is ok to go into the room where the tree is, but NO TOUCHING anything. At our house Santa wraps every present and there are no presents under the tree until he delivers on Christmas Eve. Therefore, when we go to bed there is just a tree and when we get up the room has magically transformed into forest of gifts. Quite often the kids get up early and so they go into the family room and just watch Christmas cartoons until the magical 7:00 hour.
At precisely 7:00, everyone runs into mom and dad’s room and proceeds to jump on the bed shouting, “get up, get up, get up!” At which point mom then proceeds to head to the bathroom for a long, relaxing soak in the tub, interrupted frequently by loud knocking and calls of, “are you done yet?” The waiting is not complete until mom has put on make-up, styled hair, and had breakfast. (This year, mom altered the ritual slightly and forwent the soak, so we got to open gifts early!)
Opening gifts is a very serious affair with only one gift opened at a time. The recipient is expected to open their package slowly and methodically, and then to give the proper amount of “ooos” and “ahhs” before the next gift is given.
When the last gift has been opened, we retire to the kitchen for muffins, bananas and Clementine oranges.
After breakfast it is important that we walk down to Mont and Marilyn’s house to see what Santa left for their kids.
This year the rules were followed perfectly, and each member of the family received gifts that were just what they wanted.
Most of the rest of the day is spent with Kim’s family at his parent’s house. There we always find more presents, lots of food, sometimes a nap, and then an evening full of playing games.
A variation to this Christmas was the huge amount of snow that fell on Christmas night making it necessary to literally shovel our cars out to go home!
Our Christmas was wonderful!
First no one is allowed to wake up mom and dad until after 7:00 a.m. It is ok to go into the room where the tree is, but NO TOUCHING anything. At our house Santa wraps every present and there are no presents under the tree until he delivers on Christmas Eve. Therefore, when we go to bed there is just a tree and when we get up the room has magically transformed into forest of gifts. Quite often the kids get up early and so they go into the family room and just watch Christmas cartoons until the magical 7:00 hour.
At precisely 7:00, everyone runs into mom and dad’s room and proceeds to jump on the bed shouting, “get up, get up, get up!” At which point mom then proceeds to head to the bathroom for a long, relaxing soak in the tub, interrupted frequently by loud knocking and calls of, “are you done yet?” The waiting is not complete until mom has put on make-up, styled hair, and had breakfast. (This year, mom altered the ritual slightly and forwent the soak, so we got to open gifts early!)
Opening gifts is a very serious affair with only one gift opened at a time. The recipient is expected to open their package slowly and methodically, and then to give the proper amount of “ooos” and “ahhs” before the next gift is given.
When the last gift has been opened, we retire to the kitchen for muffins, bananas and Clementine oranges.
After breakfast it is important that we walk down to Mont and Marilyn’s house to see what Santa left for their kids.
This year the rules were followed perfectly, and each member of the family received gifts that were just what they wanted.
Most of the rest of the day is spent with Kim’s family at his parent’s house. There we always find more presents, lots of food, sometimes a nap, and then an evening full of playing games.
A variation to this Christmas was the huge amount of snow that fell on Christmas night making it necessary to literally shovel our cars out to go home!
Our Christmas was wonderful!
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