Christmas Eve and Christmas in Preston

For the last two years we have spent Christmas in Spokane, so this year we headed south to Preston, Idaho to spend the holiday with Steve's family who all live in Idaho and Northern Utah. Steve's family has a number of Christmas traditions which I loved being a part of with Ellie this year.

We spent Christmas Eve together with most of the family at Grandma and Grandpa's eating a great dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and then began the fun. The first tradition on the Bennett side is that on Christmas Eve all of the kids break a pinata. There are a few little toys or presents for each grandchild in the pinata. This year Ellie got some cute holiday socks and linking ring toys. (thanks to a thoughtful aunt and grandmother who knew we would forget on Ellie's 1st Christmas)

This year the pinata was a snowman. Tradition also dictates that Uncle Steve runs the pinata and tries to hit the older kids more than they hit the pinata. Here's Steve at the ropes.

Here is Ellie's 1st turn at the pinata. She seemed to think that little taps were ok but harder hits were not. Those harder hits brought about flinches and some crying. But all in all, she did well.

Ellie may not have loved hitting the pinata, but she did enjoy watching others hit it. She was completely focused. Aunt Lori was holding her so that I could take pictures.

What was Ellie interested in even more than watching? EATING of course!

Christmas Eve night after the pinata brought some of my favorite memories of Ellie's first Christmas. The family gathered together in the family room and then told Christmas stories. First we sang Christmas hymns and Amanda and Kathy read many of the scriptures telling the Christmas story. Then Bridget read us a Christmas story. Lastly, we read Ellie's little Christmas story board book. It was such a great feeling to be sharing stories and songs of Christ's birth with family. I love feeling the Spirit with loved ones around. There is little better in this world.

Christmas Day started with opening Santa's presents. We may look like crap, but it was important to document Ellie's 1st stocking and presents from Santa.

After breakfast we all got dressed and opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa as well as a few of the family presents.Here is a video of Steve helping Ellie open her present from Grandma that her and I found right before Christmas and just couldn't pass up! As you'll see, it's obviously just as much for Daddy as for Ellie.

After presents we headed to Lori & Curtis' house for Christmas dinner and more presents. Ellie loved her presents, but she played longest with this.
After presents we had a lot of great play time. Amanda got this gun from Steve and I for Christmas and it made for a lot of entertainment for the rest of us. Here she is at the top of the stairs waiting to ambush people sniper style.
While most of us played, a select few were hard at work preparing our Christmas feast! Here's Steve in his new Broncos cookwear his sisters got him. Steve is always in charge of the meat. I know, who would've guessed.
One of the most entertaining pictures we took that day. Here are the men not long after supper. Tyler is the only one awake, in the background on the computer. What were all the women doing? Staying upstairs, awake. Well, Ellie doesn't count. She was napping too.As you can see, we had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas. Ellie hardly napped with all the excitement but was a great girl for everyone. She showered family with lots of smiles and little giggles. We loved being with the Bennett, Mason, and Roberts clans.