Christmas Traditions

A belated-recap of Christmas and some of the traditions we enjoy at this time of year:

Christmas Eve Day

Making Swedish rice pudding with Farfar while listening to Lessons & Carols from King's College in the UK (the broadcast of their Christmas Eve service).

Christmas Eve

Singing in the service at Duke Chapel (Austin & I were too sick to sing this year, and I really missed going. Hopefully next year!)

Christmas Morning

First we opened presents at our house.

We got Ainsleigh a wooden train set, since she's been obsessed with Thomas the Train.

Imitating Curious George, or at least making generic monkey sounds, "Ooh ooh ooh, ah ah ah"

Ripken putting his present to good use.

Ainsleigh thanks Ripken for giving her a little Thomas the Train for her new train set.

After opening presents at our house, we went over to Austin's parents' house (Farmor & Farfar).

Stockings

First we open stockings, which Kay is in charge of. She finds all sorts of silly things throughout the year. This year we got boomerangs and flying screeching monkeys, among other things (but you get the idea). Here is Ripken enjoying Uncle Garth's stocking bubble blower.

Ripken's stocking was the junior size this year, which had his new favorite toy, a giraffe shaker.

Breakfast

After stockings we take a break for Reed's rice pudding (which is made on Christmas Eve Day) and Tracy's sticky buns. The inspiration is from our days in PA, with a significant improvement coming from last year's Cooks Illustrated recipe. Ainsleigh polished off her goodies and was anxious for the next round, which is opening presents. She was lying on the chair staring wistfully at the big pile while we finished eating. Here is Ainsleigh pre-gifting (and post taking out her "abby" [her hair tie]). Note the mittens.

Poems

After stockings, rice pudding, and sticky buns, it's time for exchanging gifts. The additional and very important requirement is that you write a poem for the gifts you give. The poem is about the gift; sometimes you can figure out what the gift is based on the poem, or at least after you open it, you get what the poem was about. I think you get more credit for the poem than the gift (and you definitely get heckled if your poem was not up to par). The past several years Tracy has had the best poems, but this year Garth stepped it up and got the top honors. We just recently started saving the poems, but we need to figure out how to organize and catalog them.

One of Garth's poems from this year (although still not his best one):

Alone at night can be scary
You need someone with whom to tarry
Along with you through dreamland's plight
To watch your back throughout the night

I had a friend to watch my back
A golden light in night so black
A gentle purr or mighty roar
The jungle king will help you snore

The gift for the above poem was this wonderful lion that was made in Kenya.

An official chef--complete with the hat and her own spoon. (now we need Garth to give her some lessons).

Here is Ripken post-gifting. Ah, what I really wanted for Christmas, a big pile of papers to chew (if there's a piece of paper in a room, he will find it and eat it).

Annandag

The day after Christmas Reed & Kay have a big party with lots of good food and some singing and dancing. Ainsleigh's buddy Emma and her family came this year for the first time. They were pretty cute dancing to some of the Swedish ring dances (that for some reason we sang in English...they sound much better in Swedish). I didn't grab the camera until the dancing had ended, so here they are enjoying some dessert.

I think that finally concludes our Christmas update!