Christmas Eve 2010

Derk and the kids have been on Christmas break for almost a week, and it's been so great spending so much time together! It's hard around the holidays because we feel like we have to make up for the fact that we live so far away from family. Derk used to have these huge family get-togethers for holidays when he was growing up, and he hates that our kids don't get to experience that. :-( We've been trying really hard to create our own fun traditions that our kids will look forward to while we live so far away (and then hopefully it won't be too many more years before we can celebrate with family!), and we also incorporate a few traditions from when we were growing up to help US feel connected to our families still.

So anyway, today we started the day off with a colorful pancake breakfast, which the kids thought was way cool. I had these grand ideas in my head to make fun Christmas tree pancakes, but that just didn't work out at all the way I'd planned. So I scrapped that idea and decided to just make some funky pancakes instead. Each kid got a pancake with the letter of their first name on it, and then I made some with different designs to (hopefully) look like ornaments (lol), different colors, etc.


Then we packed up the kids and our water bottles and went for our traditional Christmas Eve hike. We started this tradition a few years ago, and the kids really like it. Kyrie and Asher are pros now when it comes to hiking, but little Bri was still having some trouble not getting tired. I recently read her The Little Engine That Could, so I talked to her about that book on our hike and had her chant, "I think I can, I think I can!" over and over. I should have gotten a video of her saying it because it was so cute!

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

While hiking, Asher found me a pretty piece of quartz. :-) And I took some "scenery" shots. I say "scenery" in quotes because to me this isn't scenery. But I keep trying to find the beauty in the desert!

After our hike, we came home and just relaxed for a little while. Then we made a yummy dinner! Last year we ended up not wanting to do a huge meal on Christmas day since we make a huge breakfast. So we decided to do our big meal on Christmas Eve instead. I think that'll be our tradition because we did that again this year and really enjoyed it. Last year we made pepper steak and decided to do that again this year, too. Yummy!!!

Then it was time to open our Christmas Eve presents -- pajamas! It's so funny because we do this every year, but every year the kids always seem to forget that it's pajamas. They kept talking all day about what they were going to get for their present that night. Although, I was really glad to see Bri so excited about her pajamas! :-) After the video stopped rolling, Kyrie thought it was funny that I thanked myself for my pajamas. ;-)

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

After presents, we tried out my new tripod! Last year, taking our family picture was an adventure to say the least. I had to prop my camera up on the ottoman and then on top of several books to get it to the right height. So thanks again, Mom and Dad, for the birthday money!! :-)

Merry Christmas!