Here are three pictures of Christmas at our house. I don't know why I can't get the pictures arranged with the words like I want to.
It has been our Christmas tradition since our children were very small to read the Christmas Story from Luke 2. They have always taken turns reading it and this has continued down to our grandchildren. We keep a log in our Bible as to who reads every year so we know who's turn it is. I just checked and it will be Owen's turn this year.
As you can see, Heather is reading in this picture. All the kids are shown - even Kelsie is sitting in the lower left of the picture. Then we take a nice picture in front of the tree -- and then the real fun begins. I just couldn't find a picture with all the wrappings, etc., but I'm sure you can picture it.
We take turns opening presents one at a time starting with the youngest child. They have always been pretty patient in waiting for their next turn and watching the others. This makes the fun last a little longer and cuts down on the confusion. We began drawing names a few years ago and that has helped - we just didn't have room for so many presents anymore.
2 comments:
We used to do the opening one at a time, but then for awhile the grandchildren all open a gift at the same time and then show what it is and we would rotate with the adults. I like to see when people are opening the gifts I give them.
That whole opening presents business just gets more chaotic as the numbers increase. We used to go around one by one, but that got too long for all of us. Everyone lost interest by the end of it all. This year we started with the kids all opening one gift, but it quickly turned into a free for all. The problem then is that no one knows who got what, who gave what, and you can't watch people open the gifts you gave them which, I agree, Rhoda, is part of the fun. Any more ideas out there? Perry and Carol, how do you handle it?
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