Christmas Eve & Christmas Day - 2025

Christmas Eve was a bit different for our family this year. Alex & Jacob served at all of their church services (so we didn't see them at all) and Maddie & Micah attended Coram Deo with us, joined us for lunch and then headed to their church with Micah's family.

We took our annual Christmas Eve picture at church and then snapped the annual selfie with the Rhea family. 

The Christmas Eve service is always a special one - wonderful music and message, all ending with candlelight worship. Beautiful!

After the service, we ate a late lunch/early dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then headed home for the evening. This is typically the time when the kids give their Secret Santa gifts but that was switched to Christmas day. 

We ended our day with a few Christmas movies, breakfast prep and a visit from Santa (see stockings).

Christmas Morning - I woke up at 7 and found Will asleep in the front room. He had turned on the tree lights and fell asleep. I put the casserole in the oven, woke him up then we woke up the rest of the family. Time to open stockings & presents!

We continued to use raffle tickets to find gifts (I hide the raffle tickets in the tree, once the raffle ticket is found in the tree, the name is revealed on the back on the ticket and that person has to locate the matching gift under the tree). It is a fun way to "hunt" for the gifts - it randomizes the gift opening and it allows us to enjoy a full morning together. 

Ironically, Maddie was the first one to find a gift and open it...only for me to realize that it was mislabeled and it should've been opened by Kaitee. Ha!

Maddie got a lot of scrapbooking & crafting items (and she got to use one of her knives that Micah made for her!).

Will got The Lord of the Rings book set, a "microscope" set to look at his coins up close, a safe and lots of coins for his collection.

For his coin collection - we had fun wrapping this present!

I love to see their reactions when I reuse boxes!

Kaitee asked for some mythology books, musical CDs & DVDs, Funko Pops and we surprised her with a personalized stamp to label her book collection and one of the (hard to find) books from The Librarians.

Another recycled box, ha!

Matt & I received candy, gift cards, gloves, a subscription to a geneology website, a pan that makes individual brownies and a curling iron/straightener.

Check out the wrapping job!

I also surprised Will & Matt with a WORDLE ornament for each of them. They compare their Wordle every day - it's a competition. 

I hide the presents under the two big trees, making it a bit harder to locate the matching raffle ticket.

It can be hard to reach the gifts in the back corner!

At the end of the hunt, we have trouble tracking down the last 2 or 3 raffle tickets - it took all of us looking to find 2 of the tickets. We never did find the 3rd ticket (oops)! Luckily, I knew who the last gift belonged to!

One of my gifts was this Iowa Hawkeye decal - it matches my Cubs decal on the other side of the window.

Our Christmas morning is complete - "6-7" has been mentioned. Ha!

Traditional Christmas breakfast - monkey bread and egg casserole. 

Micah gave me this handmade metal flower. Isn't it beautiful?! I love that he made it and thought I was special enough to receive it!

After the last gift had been opened & the house cleaned up, we loaded up the van and headed to Mom & Dad's (Grammy & Grandad) house to spend the rest of the day with the Barman family. 

Once Alex & Jacob arrived, the kids gave their Secret Santa gifts. 

Alex gave Will a mini projector

Will gave Maddie a music box, earrings and Sound of Music DVD

Maddie gave Kaitee a Tangled (Rapunzel) figurine

Kaitee gave Alex a water bottle and "100" DVD set

I loved Alex's expressions when she saw this gift...

With Secret Santa finished and the whole family now at the house, we made lunch and then played a few games.

We ended our time together with gifts and family pictures. 

Mom showing Dad the necklace that he bought her (us girls took him shopping over Thanksgiving for Mom's gifts). 

Dad loved this chocolate (and sweatshirt).

The earrings that Dad gave Mom.

These pictures melt my heart! I am so thankful that we took the time to take these pictures. It gets harder and harder to get the full family together - case in point that we are missing Kayla & Hunter as they had to leave for another Christmas get-together, let alone Teri's family who couldn't make it home for Christmas. We definitely need to take more family pictures when everyone is home/together.

Mom & Dad with 6 of their 11 grandkids.

Another Christmas has come and gone. Another year full of memories and many, many blessings. I am so thankful!