Tuesday Coffee Chat ~ Christmas Eve

I came across another weekly linky called Tuesday Coffee Chat hosted by Leslie at Time Out for Mom. I realize it's Thursday afternoon, but this linky involves drinking coffee and answering a themed question every week. So, I'm in.

This week's question is ....

What does Christmas Eve look like in your home?

Our Christmas Eve has changed in the past 5 years. When we lived in Oklahoma we always spent Christmas Eve at our house celebrating with Rick's sister and her family. Our tradition was to eat Mexican food, therefore a little Feliz Navidad celebration even though we are not of Spanish speaking descent. It was just fun! We had the most amazing enchiladas and salsa made by Julie and I provided the tacos and guac. After eating we would watch Christmas Vacation and then the kids would open gifts.

Now that we are in Missouri, they are four hours away so Christmas Eve is not possible with them. We now spend Christmas Eve with my family. If we have Christmas Eve dinner at our house, we still do a Mexican meal. But if we eat at my mom and dad's, we go more traditional. We eat dinner together as a family and then gather to exchange gifts. We still exchange gifts with every member of our family and it's lots of fun.

After we come home we pop in Christmas Vacation. The kids get to open their Christmas Eve pjs and then they all head upstairs to Dawson's room for a sleepover. In years past Rick and I (and last year Kyndal and Collin) have stayed up waaaaayyy too late and wrapped all of our presents for Christmas morning. I do not want to do that this year. I'm going to try my best to get all of our gifts wrapped before Christmas so that after our movie we can play a game as a family, or maybe even get to bed at a decent hour so that we are not totally exhausted on Christmas morning. Really I just want Christmas Eve for us to be easy, relaxing, and stress free.

So I guess Christmas Eve looks a little different at our house every year. But one thing is constant ... we spend time together as a family and it's my favorite evening of the whole year.

CTC Math {Schoolhouse Review}

We found our groove with math this year. I found a curriculum that both of the kids respond well to and seem to enjoy (as much as one can enjoy math). We have spent the whole year learning the ins and outs of multiplication and were just a few lessons away from being ready to move onto the next year-long level on division. And then an opportunity to review the 12 Month Family Plan from CTC Math became available. To be honest, I wasn't very enthusiastic. I mean, why mess with the methods that have worked so well? When I was chosen to review the product I didn't go into it with the level of enthusiasm that it deserved. We have been using a dvd/workbook curriculum with great success. The 12 Month Family Plan from CTC Math is a web based curriculum. As we have not had a lot of luck with those types of programs, I went into this review with a negative attitude. And then my socks were knocked off by how great it is. In fact it is so great that we are going to continue to ...

Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt (Schoolhouse Review)

For the past several weeks we have been reviewing Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament and Ancient Egypt Flashcards from Veritas Press . As we were entering into our more easy-going summer schedule, and had just concluded a two-year Old Testament Bible course, I was happy to try out this product as it appeared to be something that Eli and Brynne could do together, alone, and would act as a review of the Old Testament presented in a different way. And I was right. Each Veritas Press Self-Paced History program includes 160 lessons teaching about 32 events in history. They are designed for children in grades 2-6, and it is recommended that the student be a minimum of 7 years of age at the time of the first lesson. What We Received We received a full one-year subscription, for one child, to the online Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt program and the accompanying Old Testament and Ancien...

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

LA BotcharDecember 19, 2014 at 8:51 PM
I love the idea of having a non traditional meal actually. As much as do love turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and turnip/apple casserole -- all things we really only have at Thanksgiving and Christmas; it would be kinda cool to have something like Mexican, or Chinese, or even sushi for a change. But yes!! Christmas Vacation is a must every year -- we've actually already watched it: we couldn't wait!! LOL
I think you have the right idea: certain details can be interchangeable from year to year, as long as the important part of good food and family time is present.
and presents. :)
thanks for joining the link up (it stays open until the following Monday because I know a lot of readers have more time to blog on weekends.)

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