Christmas Morning

So this posting is a little late in coming; finally on my long flight to Tokyo yesterday I had a chance to go through the photos we took Christmas morning.

More fun than the gifts we give/receive are the traditions we've established:

• Nativity: Michelle collects nativity scenes; we've got more than two dozen. One of the traditions that Michelle picked up while serving as a missionary in France was that nativity scenes are always devoid of baby Jesus... until Christmas Eve. We've carried this tradition on in our home, and many of the sets we have collected have a baby Jesus that can be separated from the cradle; we put baby Jesus in the manger(s) on Christmas Eve before going to bed. It's nice to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas this way.
• Gift: In years past, our kids have gotten to open one present on Christmas Eve, and it has always been a new pair of pajamas. The kids really had all the PJs they need, so we broke with tradition somewhat this year. Instead, the gift they opened Christmas Eve was, for the entire family, season passes to our local ski resort, Bogus Basin.
  
• Santa: On Christmas Eve, we have a tradition of each of the kids setting their stocking on the floor usually by the Christmas tree. This is where Santa puts his gifts, unwrapped, and the kids know to go right to their stocking Christmas morning to see what loot was delivered. The kids are all forbidden to come downstairs until everybody is awake and we can head downstairs together. Michelle and I really look forward to the day when the kids want to sleep in Christmas morning, but this year, most of our kids (especially the younger ones) had their alarms set for 6am.
• Breakfast: It has become tradition to have French toast and bacon on Christmas morning. So as soon as we're done with presents, Dad fires up the griddle. Just FYI... for our size family, French toast requires 20 eggs, some milk, a bunch of sugar and cinnamon, and nearly two loaves of bread! Ask our kids to tell you about taco seasoning!!! :-)

You'll find a few pictures below, and can check out our Flickr site for all the photos we took Christmas morning; please click here.

Brianna gets two tickets to Wicked (in L.A.; Mom and Brianna went on December 27th).

Score!!! A sample of the Christmas morning excitement. Andrew gets two tickets to a Lakers game (in Salt Lake City).

Yummy!!! French toast and bacon for breakfast.

Dad fires up the griddle (OK... merely plugs it in and turns it on) and cooks eight pieces of French toast at a time.