California: Part 3

Christmas Eve

It's tradition in my family to have meat fondue on Christmas Eve. My mom cuts up lots of steak and chicken and we cook it in hot peanut oil. There are lots of sauces and lots of side dishes. My Mom kind of rocks the side dishes, she always makes lots of them and they are always delicious. Fondue for my family is one of those things that when you mention it just makes us smile. But to be honest, till I was married I really didn't know there was any other way to do it - like with cheese or chocolate. It's always been meat fondue. There are always turf wars in the pots over whose skewer has fallen and knocked others down. My Dad and Spencer are particularly vocal.





Starting with Sable and going clockwise: Sable, Rob, Rome, Josh, Mom, Dan, Erin, Capri, Jeff, Spencer, Dad. Oz and I are in the picture right above.



My Mom always sets such beautiful tables. Christmas poppers became part of the festivities a few years back. See those green beans and carrots above? Oh my goodness SO delicious.



The crowns come from inside the poppers, along with a little prize.



Only Christmas Eve and already there were a ton of presents under the tree.



After dinner we did our traditional Callister family Christmas Eve readings. My Dad read "The Night Before Christmas", the poem "Just for Christmas" and from the Bible. For "Night" we always take turns filling in the last word to each line. I don't know how many years we've done this in my family but it's at least 25. STILL we cannot all remember all the words. My Dad has always been the reader, I wonder if he'd remember!
After reading about Christ's birth, the kids, Jeff and I did a nativity scene. We had worked on it for a month beforehand. Capri was an angel, Rome a wise man, Sable a shepherd, Jeff was Joseph, I was Mary and Oz was baby Jesus. Capri went out first and started singing Silent Night. On the first verse, I went out with Oz and placed him on a prepared blanket (our manger). Then Jeff came out and kneeled behind me. On the second verse Sable came out and took her place beside the blanket, and then Rome came out with 3 gifts in a basket. He placed the gifts by Oz and then kneeled by the blanket. When Capri was done singing we each had a selected pose that we froze in for 10 seconds. The kids did such a great job, the only hiccup being that Sable had to go potty right before she came out and Rome quietly came out to tell me. I paused the music on the computer (LDS.org has all the hymns and Children's songs and you can play the music only if you want) to help her. But then we started it right back up and everybody took their places just as practiced. It really was so sweet and the kids did such a great job. I so wish I'd gotten it on the flip, but honestly it felt kind of weird to film it.

Christmas



Santa came!



He and the reindeer must have liked their goodies.



So they left LOTS and LOTS of goodies for us!





He even left a Polar Express train for ALL the kids, including the Callister ones. Papa says he has an agreement with Santa where he keeps it at his house so the grand kids can play with it there.









Everybody got just what they asked for. Capri got Ruthie to go along with Kit. Sable got the American Girl baking table she picked out and Rome got the Batcave. Jeff got LOTS of beef jerky (and more) that he'd requested and I got a new dresser! Jeff's main present to me was a calendar with a note attached that read "Mark your calendar! It will soon be time to get a new bedroom dresser! Merry Christmas! Love, Jeffy" If you saw my dresser, you'd understand how badly I need one.





Oz asked Santa for "something fun". He got lots of stuff, but loved this little Pterodactyl. It sounds exactly what Oz sounds like a lot of the time. In fact we often call him a Pterodactyl because of his dinosaur-esque noises and the fact that we're convinced he'd love to swoop over and devour us all.



My family are die hard Capitals fans (hockey). My Mom got all these Capital "tats" for the boys, Jeff was SUPER excited to wear them as you can see. He's not QUITE the hockey fan they are in that he really hates hockey. But he loves his brothers-in-law and is happy to play along.








Sable also scored an American Girl doll, from Gramma & Papa. She's Emily and is extremely cute and now extremely well loved.





It's a true testament to the love I have for my children that Rome got Lego's from Gramma. I made the suggestion, ME - the one who HATES HATES HATES Legos. But I know how much he loves them, and saw how much fun he was having with the giant bin my parents have from when my brothers were kids. The very same bin full of Legos that made me hate Legos! But he was SO happy to get his very own (and the new builder sets are pretty cool) and that makes it worth all the tiny pieces I'm sure to step on worth it.



Erin made us all hats again! She designs these with her Dad and then does all the sewing. They are so super cute, just like she is! Dan and Erin set the date for their wedding while we were there, it's going to be April 23rd. I can't say how totally excited we are to have Erin in the family officially. She's been a big part of our family for a long time. But to get to call her my sister for real, that's something I've been waiting for my whole life.

It was such a wonderful Christmas. Jeff and I also scored a bunch of other cool gifts, like the Sonic toothbrushes from my Dad that Jeff LOVES. We got lots of gift cards and a digital picture frame from my brothers that works great and is VERY cool. We all got so many presents that Jeff and I had to buy two extra large duffel bags to get it all home - and we barely made it all fit. But presents aside, it was just so wonderful to spend Christmas morning with my ENTIRE family. We haven't done that in years and years. Getting Christmas for 6 to California (and back home again) was no easy task but so totally worth it. We were thrilled to be there and thrilled at all the amazing memories me made.

Geysers



Last year we made geysers with diet Coke and Mentos on New Years Day. I found a special little device at Marshalls that claimed it made over 20 foot geysers so I brought it and we tried it out on Christmas Day. It worked perfectly!





Spencer and Dan are geniuses - they decided to stand there and see who'd move first.







We flew home a few days later, and if I'd been on my game I'd have gotten a group shot of us all before we left. We did have a professional photo shoot one day where we got everybody, but I didn't think to do it on my own camera. At that very same photo shoot, the photographer made me and my four brothers hold hands for some pictures. HOLD HANDS. I'll never forget that for the rest of my life.

And no, you won't be seeing those shots.

It was VERY extremely hard to say good bye and leave for KC. It was an amazing trip filled with lots more stuff that I neglected to get pics or video of. Like going to Candy Cane lane in the rain and then to the weirdest McDonald's in history. That, like many things we did on this trip will not be forgotten.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!