Christmas Eve

The Johnsons have a tradition on the morning of Christmas Eve where we all get together for breakfast then go bowling. This year we had german pancakes- it was scrumptious! Bowling was of course a blast, but it just wasn't my day. I didn't do too hot. Every time you get a strike, you get to pick a candy bar and I only got to do that once! I'm gonna have to practice up for next year. Zach got a strike bowling off of his stomach though!

After bowling we went to meet up with my family. Every year we go help at my dad's hospital to serve dinner to the people who have to work that night. It was really fast this year, but still fun.

Then we got ready for our Christmas Eve feast! We have the same meal every year-- sparkling cider, shrimp (except we changed it to crab cakes this year), AMAZING homemade tomato soup, ceasar salad, orange glazed carrots, homemade cheesy potatoes (the real way- no frozen hashbrowns!), and some type of roast. Each person in the family is in charge of serving and cleaning up a course, and it ends up taking about an hour to get through everything. We eat with no lights on but the candles on the table. I love this tradition!

After dinner we ended up watching some home movies. Random but so funny! Then we had our 'program' where we sang some Christmas hymns, watched 'Joy to the World', listened to my parents each give their prepared messages/thoughts, and did our time capsule tradition. Each year we write and answer questions about the year, then put it in a time capsule with a picture. We will open them in 5 years. Here is our picture for this years time capule! My older brother Braden, who was in Oregon, even got to be represented--he is on the phone in my hand :)

We spent the rest of the night playing games and watching White Christmas. We were in bed by 11:30. What losers! But we were all tired.