Christmas with the Ryerse's

Christmas this year was magical! It’s always magical, but seemed even more so this year with a child who really got into it. I love everything about Christmas, especially the fun Christmas traditions. Here are a few traditions we do in our family that I love…

• My sister, mom and I always do a baking day. We make a mess in the kitchen making all of our favorite cookies, candy, and other treats together. This year, we made Oreo cheesecake bon bons, orange truffles, chocolate covered pretzels, M&M cookies, rocky road fudge, chocolate dipped dried cherries and blueberries, Junior Mint cookies, caramels, and peanut butter balls. Yummy! We all take a bunch home and assemble plates to take around to friends and neighbors. We’ve been doing this for years, and it’s one I want to continue with my girls. Emma loved sneaking the candy and licking the bowls and spoons, she had chocolate all over her face.
  

• Gift giving and card making. I tried to get Emma into the spirit of giving this year. I had her pick out presents for her cousins, which she did very carefully and thoughtfully. I took her to the dollar store and gave her a budget and let her pick out gifts. She was very excited to see them open the presents. She also picked out a “John Deere thing” for Daddy she saw at Walmart that caught her eye. I had her help me make some other handmade gifts, like our snow globes we gave to some family members. In Dave’s family, we draw names and get into teams and go shopping together. That’s a fun night, but Dave and I just went together this year. Dave got Jerry a BB gun (this next pic is Jerry just opening it, he loved it, but I don't know if his wife did), and I got Shirley some slippers and an embossing tool. On the Stoddard side, we had Amy & Kolby, and we got them a bunch of stuff related to the Christmas Story Movie. We got them a Red Ryder gun and ammo, some red soap, hot chocolate (better than Ovaltine), some coke bottle glasses, and some other stuff. I also like to make handmade cards for family and friends (which I did most of them this past summer). This year, they featured the cute art of Mary Engelbreit.
  
  
  
  
• Christmas Eve with the Stoddard’s is held with extended family. The festivities include a ham dinner, a visit by Santa Claus, and a talent show. Emma wasn’t sure if she should go right up to Santa or run away and cling to me. But she sat on his lap, making sure we were near if she needed to escape. It’s kind of a love-hate relationshijp. This year, Emma, Dave, Kolby and I sang and played percussion instruments to Jingle Bells. Emma got shy and didn’t sing after all, but she did shake the bells, but she did do her belly dance (he he), and I played my flute.


• At the Ryerse’s, the main event is a Pinata, which Emma and Tayla were going nuts over! After Dave duct tapes the piñata (this year it was a helicopter) to make it tougher for us, we start with the youngest taking a turn, and go to the oldest. After each person went, Emma would get so excited and yell out “Good job [Julie]! Yeah!” and she’d clap and get all excited. When the candy started getting knocked out, she and Tayla would get huge smiles on their faces and scream “Woa! Wow!” and they’d run with their bowls and go collect the candy. This year, we also did a white elephant gift exchange, and played some games Stacy put together.

• Christmas morning was fabulous! We opened presents with the Ryerse family. Jerry woke everyone up at about 8 a.m. (we were tired as we didn’t crash until about 2 a.m.!). As always, we all got spoiled! For Christmas, Emma got a stick horse, a snap-on doll, clothes, some jammies, a sleeping bag, some boots, a few games and books, Little People bus and more. Emma had so much fun opening the presents, and her face would light up about everything she got or gave. “Oh my goodness!” she’d say after she saw what it was she opened. Some of her favorite presents were the Princess boots that Grandma Di and Grandpa Scott gave to her, she always wants to put them on and dances around everywhere. She loved her Hello Kitty sleeping bag, and likes to get it out a lot. And she was so excited she got "lots of candy!" from Santa, which is what she asked for. We made German pancakes and hashbrowns for breakfast. Then we just played with toys, like usual. Then it was over to the Stoddard’s to meet my parents that afternoon to call my brother, Mark, who is serving a mission. It was so much fun to talk to him, and listen to what he had to say (when we could understand him, he really had a Chilean accent). Then we had a dinner and watched the movie Christmas Shoes at my Aunt Christie’s home. We loved all the snow we got Christmas night, and were glad we only had a few blocks to travel to get home! May we all make the magic and spirit of Christmas last all year...