{"id":10978,"date":"2013-12-31T10:40:16","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T16:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=10978"},"modified":"2013-12-31T10:40:16","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T16:40:16","slug":"christmas-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=10978","title":{"rendered":"Christmas 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year is the first year that we brought our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations under one roof. It used to be we would celebrate Christmas Eve at my parents’ house in Derby and then we would be at my in-laws’ house in Wichita on Christmas Day. However, Brian’s parents sold their house and officially moved to Midwest City, OK last month. <\/p>\n

We figured that, since we were going to be hosting Christmas Day at our house anyway, we might as well host Christmas Eve as well. It worked out perfectly also because our nephews celebrate Christmas Eve with their other grandparents (Jennifer Cannady’s parents) who live just around the block from us.<\/p>\n

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Christmas Eve started quietly enough with Brian showing grandma his new laptop.<\/p>\n

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Donna made deviled eggs. Yum!<\/p>\n

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Mom made lumpia<\/em>, menudo<\/em>, chicken macaroni salad, and fruit salad. For someone who never cooked when I was growing up, my mom actually makes really delicious food.<\/p>\n

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Brian made crockpot chicken adobo<\/em> and chocolate chip cookies.<\/p>\n

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I made what we call el cheapo<\/em> (ground beef, peas, and carrots) because it’s easy to make and goes well with steamed white rice. <\/p>\n

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We had way more food than we could ever eat. We could have invited all of our friends for dinner and still would have had leftovers. Seriously.<\/p>\n

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We played a few rounds of Catch Phrase<\/a>\"\" after dinner. It was hilarious! The adults also exchanged gifts while we waited for the boys, that way we could focus on the kids when they arrived. <\/p>\n

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Brian and I got mom and dad a pasta night gift set and Downton Abbey Seasons 1, 2 & 3<\/a>\"\" since dad mentioned that he really loved that show during Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

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I also got mom an Origami Owl<\/a> living locket necklace and then a gift card to Tower Hobbies<\/a> for dad. We try to keep the gifts pretty even.<\/p>\n

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We got Jenni $25 to Rue 21<\/a> (she loves that store for some reason) and I gave her a bunch of workout clothes (a couple of UnderArmour<\/a> tanks and a pair of Zumba<\/a> sweatpants) in hopes that she’ll start working out with me again.<\/p>\n

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There was nothing implicit about my request either.<\/p>\n

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After the boys arrived, it was all about them. Here are some photos.<\/p>\n

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We got the boys matching Superman shirts (because Brian likes Superman most out of all the superheroes) and then Eli and QQ both got PlasmaCars<\/a>\"\". We gave Logan $50 cash, which is about the same price as the PlasmaCars, just to keep things even. <\/p>\n

Mom, dad, and Jenni got Logan a big TV for Christmas. I’m not sure what else the boys got, but they usually do pretty well. Christmas is not about presents, but it’s always fun to watch their eyes light up.<\/p>\n

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The next morning was all about grandma and my in-laws. <\/p>\n

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We each got them stockings full of their favorite goodies.<\/p>\n

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They all got booze and chocolates in their stockings, among other things.<\/p>\n

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Brian made quite a breakfast!<\/p>\n

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When Kevin, Kasey, Kyndra, and Andrew arrived, we all headed to the basement to exchange gifts while we waited for lunch to be ready.<\/p>\n

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We got Andrew a bunch of Thundercats<\/a>\"\" toys, which is what Kevin told us he wanted. For Kyndra we got a little cheerleader bag, a box of Russell Stover<\/a> chocolates, and a makeup kit<\/a>\"\". Kasey told us that is what she wanted. I guess she’s of that age now that she’s starting to get into cosmetics. <\/p>\n

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For Kasey we got a set of Hello Kitty glasses and a Hello Kitty flask because she loves anything Hello Kitty. We got Kevin the Alien Anthology [Blu-ray]<\/a>\"\" box set. We figured he would enjoy it.<\/p>\n

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I got Donna an Origami Owl<\/a> living locket necklace also just like the one I got for mom. I got the necklace, locket, mom plate, and two birthstone charms. The funny thing is other than the necklace (which I got in two different styles) the lockets themselves look almost identical because Jenni and Kevin were both born during the month of November so they have the same birthstone and then my birthstone and Brian’s birthstone are pretty much the same color (pink).<\/p>\n

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For David and Donna to enjoy together, we got a bar set<\/a>\"\" and the same bamboo cutting board with multicolor mats<\/a>\"\" that we have because they mentioned that they liked ours a lot when they were staying with us last month. David got the same Alien Anthology collection we got for Kevin and also the Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection<\/a>\"\" to complete his Star Trek movie collection which we started earlier this year.<\/p>\n

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It’s not just kids who are fun to watch as they open presents. Adults are equally fun to watch also, specially grandma. We got her a tin of her favorite Christmas cookies from Sam’s Club (which David and Donna got for her also, so she ended up with two tins this year), a sleigh full of Ghirardelli<\/a> chocolate goodies, a couple of Disney DVD movie collections — the Classics (Gnome-Mobile \/ Darby O’gill & Little People \/ One & Only Genuine Family \/ Happiest Millionaire)<\/a>\"\" and Herbie (Love Bug \/ Herbie Goes Bananas \/ Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo \/ Herbie Rides Again)<\/a>\"\".<\/p>\n

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After exchanging presents, it was time for lunch. Christmas Day lunch consisted of mac and cheese, Donna’s scalloped potatoes, pork loin, etc. Kevin and Kasey brought some treats too. Again, we had way more food than we could eat. Even after grandma took food home, Brian and still had a ton of leftovers. Our fridge was full for days!<\/p>\n

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This is our Christmas celebration in a nutshell. The two days were a whirlwind of food and merriment. It was actually kind of a relief when it was all over. LOL. We cleaned the house throughly from top to bottom the day after Christmas and then we take down both Christmas trees today. Slowly but surely Brian and I remove all evidence of the Christmas mayhem that ensued and prepare to welcome the new year ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year is the first year that we brought our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations under one roof. It used to be we would celebrate Christmas Eve at my parents’ house in Derby and then we would be at my in-laws’ house in Wichita on Christmas Day. However, Brian’s parents sold their house and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[235,2474],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10978"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10997,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10978\/revisions\/10997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}