Cousins Christmas

Every year around Christmas time, my mom likes to have a kind of family party where we can just have fun and not worry about the stress of visiting other families and things that Christmas Day can bring. In years past we've gone out to eat, we've done the game where each group of 2 gets $5 and everyone brings an item for dinner. We've also had simple dinners of Little Ceasars pizza and then played games. We've always had fun and I always look forward to it.

This year money was tight for everyone, so as we discussed our options about a party, we decided that if we did something that focused more on the kids this year they would hopefully feel okay on Christmas when they didn't have quite as many presents.

We decided we'd have what we called Cousins Christmas and we'd make it a sleep-over at Grandma & Grandpa's. My kids were thrilled.

We started out at 7:00 P.M. on December 14th. I let Eric stay home since he prefers to sleep in his own bed, but he had to promise to not complain the next day and to show up and help me. After everyone arrived at my parents, we go the kids in their jammies and headed out to see lights. Our original plan was to go to places like Christmas Street up in Salt Lake City, but because I left my license at home (ooops) and for other reasons that I don't remember at the moment, we stuck close to my parents home.

Because I was driving, I had Shaylyn take the camera to take pictures - which she dutifully did. But then I remembered that the memory card was still in my computer, so all the pictures she took were for naught. I felt so bad.

After we returned to my parents after seeing the lights, we went about with my sister Kaeloni's activity. She had decided to do Christmas Trees made out of ice cream cones, frosting and candy. This went over quite well and the kids all had fun. Even us adults made a couple.

When everyone had completed their trees, aunt Kami called all the kids over and asked them to sit in a line. She had simple little gifts for them, but I thought they were wonderful. She had asked each of the kids to describe all the cousins, one at a time, by one word. It was funny to see what some of the kids got. She then made each of the kids little subway art signs with those words and their picture.

We then decided it was time for bed. Because Kaeloni had a new baby she got one of the bedrooms. My older brother, Corby and his wife took the other guest bedroom with their son. Kami & Mark had brought an air mattress and made their bed in the front room. Because I was playing single parent and knew Ailey would want to be near me, I made use of Kami's other air mattress and snuggled with Ailey, in the basement family room, with all the kids. Ummm, yeah I didn't sleep so well.

The next morning everyone took their time waking up. We had a breakfast of waffles and took it kind of easy in the morning. When each of the kids had eaten and gotten ready for the day, Kami had some games planned out for the kids. Some were as simple as 'Simon Says' with a Christmas character name instead, but the kids had fun doing all of the games.

We also got to visit with cousin Ryan for the first time. He spent his first week of life in the hospital and then we were all sick, so we had to stay away so he didn't get sick again. So we were all finally able to love on the sweet little guy. YAY!

After we had lunch, we decorated the sugar cookies I made. I made way too many and the kids didn't have as much fun as I had hoped, but it was okay. I was stressed because Ailey was so ornery and I just wanted Eric to come help me out.

Eric arrived shortly after and we all got ready to head to Build-A-Bear. Kami had been in touch with a lady who was associated with a Women's/Children's shelter and we decided we'd build some bears to donate to the shelter. I was initially worried about the cost, but if you forego the clothes and stuff the bears really aren't that expensive. The little kids had a hard time understanding why they couldn't keep the bear they made, but the older kids were glad to donate the bears. Kami recently emailed us and told us what the lady told her.

"She indicated that as she went into the room, there were lots of "socks, clothes, coats," and the like that were donated, but as she told the leader of the shelter about what we had done and how the cards should stay with the bears, the lady started to cry and said they never get things that the kids can actually open for Christmas."

I was so pleased to hear that and I think the kids do get overlooked a bit when it comes to Christmas time and they have plenty of what they might 'need', but nothing so much as what they might 'want.' It felt awesome to hear that.

After we finished with the bears we decided to head over to the lights at Temple Square. Well that lasted all of about a half hour and we didn't even see very many lights. Part of the problem was that Kaeloni had to feed her new baby and he wasn't really cooperating. Then it was super cold, the kids were tired, parents were tired and we called it a night. I think we tried to fit too much into one day.

That being said we still had an awesome time and I love that my kids had so much fun with their cousins. I think it may become our new tradition, but time will tell.

Of course I took a ton of pictures during the course of the 2 days (I had brought my laptop, so I did have my memory card) and instead of posting them all here, I just made a video. It seems to work better. And yes, Kaeloni I will get these to you ASAP!