Tuesday Coffee Chat ~ Christmas Eve

I came across another weekly linky called Tuesday Coffee Chat hosted by Leslie at Time Out for Mom. I realize it's Thursday afternoon, but this linky involves drinking coffee and answering a themed question every week. So, I'm in.

This week's question is ....

What does Christmas Eve look like in your home?

Our Christmas Eve has changed in the past 5 years. When we lived in Oklahoma we always spent Christmas Eve at our house celebrating with Rick's sister and her family. Our tradition was to eat Mexican food, therefore a little Feliz Navidad celebration even though we are not of Spanish speaking descent. It was just fun! We had the most amazing enchiladas and salsa made by Julie and I provided the tacos and guac. After eating we would watch Christmas Vacation and then the kids would open gifts.

Now that we are in Missouri, they are four hours away so Christmas Eve is not possible with them. We now spend Christmas Eve with my family. If we have Christmas Eve dinner at our house, we still do a Mexican meal. But if we eat at my mom and dad's, we go more traditional. We eat dinner together as a family and then gather to exchange gifts. We still exchange gifts with every member of our family and it's lots of fun.

After we come home we pop in Christmas Vacation. The kids get to open their Christmas Eve pjs and then they all head upstairs to Dawson's room for a sleepover. In years past Rick and I (and last year Kyndal and Collin) have stayed up waaaaayyy too late and wrapped all of our presents for Christmas morning. I do not want to do that this year. I'm going to try my best to get all of our gifts wrapped before Christmas so that after our movie we can play a game as a family, or maybe even get to bed at a decent hour so that we are not totally exhausted on Christmas morning. Really I just want Christmas Eve for us to be easy, relaxing, and stress free.

So I guess Christmas Eve looks a little different at our house every year. But one thing is constant ... we spend time together as a family and it's my favorite evening of the whole year.

ABCya

Eli's reading resource teacher shared a website with me yesterday that I would like to pass along. It's called ABCya . There are separate educational sections with fantastic games for ages kindergarten through 5th grade. I browsed the 2nd grade level, and it includes age-appropriate games about Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Geometry, Patterns, Mouse Manipulation, Art and Holiday games. There are lots and lots of fun and creative games for children to play. They are fun, but oh, so educational. Eli's favorite, in his short time playing it, was Create a Car . A lot of the games also have Apps available for purchase (99 cents for most of them) for the iPad and iPhone. I have been looking for another free website for games similar to Starfall , for some time. I think I have found it. I can feel confident having Eli and Brynne play these games.

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Last Child in the Woods ~ Chapters 1-4

Welcome to our book study of Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. To be honest, I have no idea what this "study" is going to look like. I imagine that when we get together I will post about all of the things that caught my eye. And I would ask that you leave a comment, or a link to your own blog post in the comment, about what caught yours. This isn't anything formal, ladies, just a place to talk about what we have read. I have now read the first four chapters of Last Child in the Woods two times. It is just so good. Several things have specifically hit me deep, but in general I just realized that "times, they are a changin'." Things aren't the way they were when we were kids. Chapter 1. Gifts of Nature ~ "When I see birches bend to left and right ... I like to think some boy's been swinging them." ~ Robert Frost What is your definition of nature? What feelings, visions, senses does it conjure up? For me, it's not a

LA BotcharDecember 19, 2014 at 8:51 PM
I love the idea of having a non traditional meal actually. As much as do love turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and turnip/apple casserole -- all things we really only have at Thanksgiving and Christmas; it would be kinda cool to have something like Mexican, or Chinese, or even sushi for a change. But yes!! Christmas Vacation is a must every year -- we've actually already watched it: we couldn't wait!! LOL
I think you have the right idea: certain details can be interchangeable from year to year, as long as the important part of good food and family time is present.
and presents. :)
thanks for joining the link up (it stays open until the following Monday because I know a lot of readers have more time to blog on weekends.)

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