Christmas Adam and Christmas Eve

On Christmas Adam, the day before Eve, we were all off from work and school and decided to have the kids exchange their gifts.  When there's nine people in the house, there are always plenty of presents to go around, and spreading it out was much nicer!  All of the Pre-school through 8th graders buy a gift for one of their siblings at the St. Nick's Workshop at school, and the high schoolers went out and generously bought gifts for all of their siblings because they are working men :)  They also wanted to pull some pranks like wrapping all of the gifts up as a toilet seat...

...which we all enjoyed.  Good work JP!

Andrew wrapped up an old toothbrush for Xander before giving him his real gift.

Declan got a Patriots football, very exciting.

Mostly, they got gifts like candy, silly string, and cheap toys that will break in a week.  But it was very sweet to watch the thoughtfulness involved, and laugh at the gag gifts.  A house full of boys is always entertaining!

On Christmas Eve, we played Christmas music all day long and baked some treats and got ready for Mass at 4 pm.  The older four boys are altar servers, so they wear polos or tshirts under their cassocks, which is why they do not look "dressed up" for Christmas Mass.  But look how snazzy my littles are!  Declan's pose!

We always take a family photo after Mass, but this year thought we might have to skip it becasue of corona, yet our friend Larry, who is a seminarian stationed at our parish for the month, offered to take it for us, and we all smiled with our eyes!  I'll never wonder what year this Christmas photo was taken, it just screams 2020.

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to give the kids a gift from us, and they can also give their presents to us.  It's usually something small they made in school, or a precious piece of art.  

Eamon got me some Reese's peanut butter cups, a fave.

Maggie made us a "Lovebird" sticker picture and gave us each a nice card.

JP gave us some candy, Xander and Declan each made us an ornament, and then Brendan, with tears in his eyes, said "But I don't have a gift for you." so I scooped him up and told him that he could give me the best gift of all - a giant HUG!  I'm not lying, Brendan's hugs can solve the world's problems.

Andrew gave me a cozy blanket.

And Phil got a Basket Head game :)

Then they each received a gift bag from us with three things - a towel, a book, and their favorite salty treat.

JP got ghost pepper chips, Andrew got Honey Mustard Pretzels, Eamon got White Cheddar Grooves, Maggie got Funions, Xander got Cool Ranch Doritos, Declan gor Sour Cream and Onion chips, and Brendan got Mickey Mouse Veggie Chips.

The little guys went downstairs to Gammy and Grandpa's to put Baby Jesus in the manger...

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and came back upstairs for dinner!

My brother-in-law gave my parents some masks with their pictures on them :)

We had ribs and chicken tenders and salad and mac n' cheese and cornbread - a very barbeque-ish Christmas Eve.

And of course, birthday cake for Baby Jesus, made by Maggie, and it was delish!

Once everyone had gone home and to bed, the elves worked their magic and prepped for Christmas morning!

But that is a post for another day, this elf is still tired :)