Nathen does not join us for Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day because of a prior arrangement made with his mom before Starr & I had children together. Even though we don't see him on Christmas Day, we still feel like it's only appropriate to celebrate as a family on a different date, reserved just for him. Prior to having our girls, we would have a "Christmas Eve" party the night before, wake up on what we deemed Christmas Day and celebrate as if it really was the 25th. Starr often volunteered to work Christmas Day since he was the only one at work without kids to celebrate with. After having Madeline we went back and forth on what to do...we didn't want to give her two Christmas' and spoil her too much, but we wanted to also celebrate on Christmas vs weeks prior. Eventually we decided to eliminate Nathen's "Christmas Eve" Party since he was no longer interested in it, continue to have a Christmas celebration complete with our traditional Santa pancakes, and give our girls enough inexpensive presents, primarily books and clothes they need, during Nathen's Christmas that they didn't feel left out and Nathen felt like it was a real celebration. This year the weather was a little iffy, so we decided to celebrate on Saturday, the 13th, and invite my mom over to make it feel a little more like Christmas.
We had our traditional Santa pancakes, and started opening gifts! Madeline had a blast handing out gifts while Nathen enjoyed ripping open the paper and seeing what each package entailed. It was a little difficult to shop for him this year--a 13 year old doesn't really like toys unless they cost a few hundred dollars and not entirely into clothes unless they are name brand. By the look on his face while he tore into each package, I think we did pretty good and he was thankful for the gifts he received. Madeline was hilarious, wanting to help open the presents and screaming each time she opened one of hers. She even knew about a couple of the items we had gotten her, but just the idea that she had to rip off paper to get to them was exciting for her. She even helped Elizabeth open her ornament and her one little toy.
The present opening ended with a big gift...a Karaoke machine! Nathen was excited and both kids received a Karaoke machine. The two of them danced and sang their hearts out before settling down to watch Madeline's new Hannah Montana DVD (yes, she loves 
Hannah Montana and Nathen loves Miley Cyrus). Although Nathen didn't want to admit that he wanted to watch the movie (it's a live, recorded concert), he watched the entire thing and even danced along with Madeline a few times. My mom left around 10pm and the kids fell instantly asleep. We had a great time celebrating as a family and it was fun to have a sneak peak of what Christmas Day will look like. It's disappointing that we can't enjoy Christmas Day with Nathen, but it's fun to have our own family tradition that is a little unique and extra special!
The present opening ended with a big gift...a Karaoke machine! Nathen was excited and both kids received a Karaoke machine. The two of them danced and sang their hearts out before settling down to watch Madeline's new Hannah Montana DVD (yes, she loves 
Hannah Montana and Nathen loves Miley Cyrus). Although Nathen didn't want to admit that he wanted to watch the movie (it's a live, recorded concert), he watched the entire thing and even danced along with Madeline a few times. My mom left around 10pm and the kids fell instantly asleep. We had a great time celebrating as a family and it was fun to have a sneak peak of what Christmas Day will look like. It's disappointing that we can't enjoy Christmas Day with Nathen, but it's fun to have our own family tradition that is a little unique and extra special!(note-our tree is stuffed in the corner because a certain little someone likes to pull herself up on any and everything and we were worried she'd also try it on the tree! :-) )
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