I know we have a few more weeks... right? oh MY - that went FAST! But I wanted to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS with my family Christmas card! I haven't even received them yet - (lab overflowing, I guess!) - so I'll post it here.
What is everyone doing for Christmas? We have a tradition of going to Nate's parent's house on Christmas Eve- having dinner and opening up gifts from each other. Then we head over to my parent's house (they happen to live 5 minutes apart) and have Rice Pudding (Lion House receipe, I think). Whoever finds the almond (strategically placed by my mom) in the pudding gets to open their Christmas jammies first. My boy accidentally got it two years in a row. He was SOOOO excited. My mom is making my kidlettos their jammies this year. They look forward to seeing the package marked "Open Christmas Eve".
Here's the front of the card:
And the back:
What do you all do for Christmas?
we don't have family close, so we're still working on making our own family traditions... i really like the one of having rice pudding on Christmas Eve, so I think I'll add that this year. We do the PJs and read the Christmas Story in Luke.
Posted by: Alissa | December 11, 2007 at 04:32 PM
what a gorgeous christmas card!!! love the family pic. So colorful!
We do the Christmas jammies tradition too...so much fun. I would like to get mariko something fancy like a christmas nightgown, but I know she loves the wal-mart hannah montana jammies the best :)
Posted by: Kamie | December 11, 2007 at 08:30 PM
Beautiful card. I can't wait to get mine. Christmas Eve we go caroling to the "shut-in's" of our ward and then have corn chowder at our friends house. I am sad we will miss it this year. but SOOOO excited to see you!
Posted by: Joanna | December 12, 2007 at 07:38 AM
Kara, beautiful card! Beautiful family! We do the pj's too, and this year, I got the three oldest matching "incredibles" jammies, from the disney store. Since it didn't come in the baby's size, she got pink princess pjs. We do christmas eve at home wiht just us, and have a fun dinner, and then the kids get pjs and a book or two. The first year we decided to give books, I didn't do pj's, and when they opened the books, they were very disapointed, and a few tears were shed, since a book wasn't exactly what they were expecting. They are used to mom's book presents now.
Posted by: Heidi Julander | December 12, 2007 at 09:29 AM
What a gorgeous card Kara.. wow.. I love it.. and the images are awesome. I am trying to think what we do for christmas thats different or unique.. and I got nothing how sad is that? We pretty much stay home.. we hang out Christmas eve watching holiday movies with the kids and then Christmas day.. after we open gifts we just kind of chill dinner is usually at my house. we used to have everyone over but it started to get to be too much so we keep it simple.. we may go to my mother in laws this year for a bit but for the most part we will be home spending time together
Posted by: Elizabeth | December 12, 2007 at 10:13 AM
Beautiful Kara. Absolutely stunning. I love your traditions. We might have to hijack your rice pudding tradition.
We have an insane extended family Christmas Eve party where EVERYONE comes from out of state. The girls play with their long lost cousins and they come home extremley exhausted. We then open our new slippers/jammies and read the story in Luke. They also get a new Christmas Book to open on Christmas Eve. It is so fun to add to our collection. We make hot chocolate and set out cookies for Santa and carrot sticks for his reindeer and then the kidlets are off to bed. I stay up and make our breakfast casserole that has to sit in the fridge overnight and they fall asleep to that yummy smell.
Not terribly original but we live by it.
Oh, and I want your friend Joanna's corn chowder recipe. I haven't been able to find one that I love.
Posted by: Stephanie | December 13, 2007 at 02:01 PM
LOVE the Christmas card Kara! And I noticed the cute little candy cane legs on #3!!! So stinkin' cute!
We do jammies too. But not so much "jammies" but sweat pants and t-shirts. The boys open them Christmas Eve! The ONLY night of the year that my kids BEG me to let them go to bed!! "No, not now kids, the sun is still shining!"
We've had a Christmas Eve "ritual" since the boys were small. But since moving into the house we live in now (this will be our third Christmas here), things have changed. We are struggling to find our "new" ritual but it has become difficult with teenagers and *sniff*sniff* a missionary! I think our new tradition for the next little while will be to be HOME at the exact moment the missionary calls on Christmas day!
Wow... I've written an epistle.... I'll go!
Posted by: Lilian | December 13, 2007 at 04:19 PM
Oh i absolutely love your christmas card. You have such an adorable family. Our family does the swedish rice cream every-year also (with almond and all) I won it five years in a row growing up. All my cousins started to resent me because I had such good luck. Every year we watch "White Christmas" at my parents house on Christmas Eve. Everyone in the family knows all the words to all the songs. My grandpa leads us in "We'll follow the old man." and my aunt and mother dance to "Sisters." If you have ever seen it, you would know what I am talking about. Now that I am married I get the privlege of starting new traditions with my husbands family, which includes spending all week up at Snowbird skiing. Can't argue with that... I personally just love being with those that I love.
Posted by: jordan | December 16, 2007 at 05:10 PM
Ohhh love to see everyone's traditions! These are SOOO great!!! I'll post again before Christmas!
Posted by: Kara Elmore | December 17, 2007 at 10:23 AM