Christmas Eve

This year's Christmas was different and tinged with sadness. It was always one of my Mom's favorite holidays and she would go all out between her cooking, gifts and joy to make each Christmas more special than the last.

We all met at my Dad's house for our big dinner, trying to replicate the giant meal that my Mom always made each year. We ate an awesome meal and then got ready for church. Taking the family pictures is always quite the ordeal but this year went smoother than most, maybe because the kids are getting older. We each took the standard family picture:

And then the great-grandchildren took a picture with my Grandma, one normal, the other silly:

We took this brand new family picture of everyone (except Will):

We then headed to church at St. Luke's in Haslett. Even though I go to a church that would be considered contemporary, I love the traditional liturgy for Christmas Eve, finished with the candle light service. Somehow I was in a row as the only "responsible" adult with 6 kids, which made the cande light part of the service fun. I was able to blow out Matthew's candle four times, Andrew got yelled at three times by Dan and Emily and Allie each burned themselves. We were surprisingly good with not having my Mom there to keep an eye on all of us. One of the funniest moments occurred when the boys (all sitting in my row) sang the hymn What Child is This and giggled as they heard and saw the line, "Where ox and ass are feeding?". I mouthed to my brothers and Dad what the boys were all giggling about and they too found it pretty darn funny. We got to say "ass" in church. That's funny to me. I think my Mom would have grinned and then rolled her eyes.

We came back to my Dad's house and ate some more and the kids got to open presents from their Aunts and Uncles, which included penguin themed pajamas, which Kris was somehow able to find for all of the kids and herself. Kris loves penguins - their shape, their size and their textures so we weren't suprised when she finally was able to fulfill her dream.

One of the kids got this cool stretchy thing, which at one time or another we all were able to put on our heads.

My sister Sooze loves to try and get into other people's pictures (I'm guessing this is where Nate gets it from) and this picture is no different.

Once the kids were downstairs hanging out, the rest of us did our new stocking exchange thing. We each spent no more than $5 to get the maximum amount of stuff. I had drawn Kris's name and picked a theme that she would appreciate as much as my brother Dan would (hint: it involved dollar store lingerie and a rooster statue). Kris was kind enough to get me gifts that involved this very nice jock strap.

As a new tradition, each of us put some memories of my Mom in a a stocking and we took turns sharing them. There were a lot of laughter and a lot of tears, but it was a cool, focused time to remember Mom.

We got the kids to bed around 11ish and Kevin, Jon, my Dad and I ended up playing the Wii together. My Dad turned out to be a master at Wii bowling and golf and ended up smoking us all. The controls are so intuitive, it makes it a blast. With bowling, you move your arm just like you are bowling, twisting your wrist on release to put spin on the ball.

We had a great Christmas eve and wisely hid the bells before to ensure a peaceful Christmas morning. My Mom had a tradition of getting up super early on Christmas Morning and letting the kids get the rest of us up early as well ringing these demon possessed bells that make you want to hurt someone badly at 6am.

You can find the pictures from Christmas Eve in the Kurt Family Gallery.