Hendricks Christmas

 Because of all the fun plans that everyone had for Christmas, the only day that worked for everyone to celebrate Christmas was December 17. We all gathered at Mom and Dad's house for a fun day of celebrating together. 

We started off with the traditional family photos on the stairs, which is getting harder and harder as the kids get bigger and bigger. (I'll have to update this once I get a few of the family photos from Ben, although clearly everyone was taking pictures!)

Grandpa and Grandma with the grandkids

We spent the day opening stockings, eating food, opening more presents, and eating more food. Grandpa also put together a devotional for us. Everyone had a part to read as we told of the journey that we celebrate at Christmas and continue to celebrate today.

For the past few years, Grandma has had some sort of theme for the presents, usually connected to the show that we go see at the Claire Theater. This year, however, the show was The Christmas Carol, and while it was very well done and we all enjoyed it immensely, it didn't lend itself to a fun gift theme! 

She was forced to be creative and come up with something else, and she was very successful! We were all sent upstairs to 'the waiting room of the Hendricks Pacific Express.' We found chairs, a few little games, and snacks to keep us busy while we waited. 

Once the conductors were ready, they called us downstairs, where we were all given a ticket with our assigned seats, complete with a music track in the background that sounded like a train. Destination: currently unknown. 

And then came the train itself.

Each of the kids has a 'train car' with all of their presents in it! At the bottom of the pile was an envelope for each person (including the adults.) Once we opened it, we discovered that the train is heading to Vancouver! As part of our Christmas gift, we are all going to take Amtrak and go to Science World sometime this summer. 

We had such a great day and it went by way too fast. Everyone gave amazing gifts, the kids were happy the whole time, the food was delicious, and the company was excellent. 

Matching pjs

Cheers!

Annaliese made Grandma a vase in art class (she actually made all the cousins, Grandpa, Grandma, Kyle and I all homemade gifts!)

Annaliese's gift to Elias- a nerf-gun target

Mallory, Haleigh, and Lydia making silly faces to match the silly glasses.