Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve began with a visit to my Grandmother’s house to wish her a Merry Christmas and to pick up a package my mom had sent for us. After that, we stopped at Adam’s parent’s house to pick up another package my mom sent for us. Then, we went to Wal-Mart to purchase our ornament for the year. I have received an ornament for Christmas every year since my first from my parents, and Adam and I wanted to continue that tradition in our own way.

Every Christmas Eve, my family gets together and has a late lunch, early dinner. (It usually starts at 3:00, because my mom doesn’t want to conflict with anyone else’s Christmas Eve schedule.) Then we read the nativity story as the younger kids act it out. After that, the kids exchange gifts.

As always, there was lots of laughter and fun all around. When my whole family gets together, we always find ways to have a good time. Like when Mike took all of the used wrapping paper and crushed it into a tiny box, tied a bow around it, and had Jordan write “To: Guy, From: Kalli Burningham” on it and stuck it under the tree. After that, my mom accidentally sprayed Kalli with whipped cream. Then Bret ate some little smokies (tiny hot dogs soaked in barbeque sauce) dipped in chocolate. Basically, everyone was just having fun.

Here are some pictures of the dinner, and the nativity. The only one that wasn’t in it was Briggs, who can be very shy when it comes to that sort of thing, and is in the “I don’t want to, and you can’t make me” stage. And Boston didn’t seem too thrilled with playing the role of Baby Jesus, but Alex got him to calm down.


After we were finished with the festivities at Adam’s parents’ house, we went for a long drive around Orem, looking at the Christmas lights, which was something I have enjoyed doing every year. When we returned from that, we hooked up the web-cam that my parents got us for Christmas (they sent us a gift card and let us pick out the one we liked best). It was a wonderful thing to see them for the first time since they moved, and get to see their faces as they opened the gifts we sent them. And they got to see us open the gifts that they sent to us, which was a Christmas Mickey and Minnie for our Christmas Animal collection, and Cubby gave us The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS. We are very excited to play it.

Then it was time for us to begin our Christmas Eve gift exchange. I had bought Adam a soft navy blue robe and blue plaid pj bottoms. Adam bought me a big, soft, white, fluffy robe and a set of three pairs of long socks. They are soooo cute! Great minds think alike, huh?

Then, I sent Adam into the office and closed the door. I got all of Adam’s gifts (except for one, ‘cause I hid it so well that even I forgot about it) and put them under the tree and covered them with a blanket. When he was done arranging the gifts for me, he pulled the blanket off while he walked away so he wouldn’t see the pile.

And for the record, I would like to say that I did not peek. Not while I set up her gifts, or when I pulled the blanket.