Homeschooling Family of Five: Our Family's Christmas Traditions

So a few months ago my husband and I decided that this year would be the last year we would be going to all of our extended families' Christmas get togethers. Last year was very stressful because we were expected to take our then 18 month old and 6 month old to SIX family Christmas events and our little family Christmas ended up being pushed to the New Year because of all of the traveling we had to do. Also, those of you who have little ones know the horrible things that happen to little ones who goes day without their routine. It took half way into January to get back into the flow of things. This year was also our first year that K started to understand the traditions of Christmas so we decided to try some new things this year.
Well our Christmas events started at my parents' house this past Thursday. We broke the news that next year we will only be going to the Christmas events at our parents' houses and any other family members that would like to see us or the girls would have to come then. We then continued our festivities on Saturday with back to back Christmas parties with my dad and mom's family. We then decided to have our Christmas today (on Christmas Eve) because of all of the traveling and family events we have scheduled for the next two days. We wanted to make sure that the girls had time to play with their new toys so that we can hopefully minimize some temper tantrums. This evening we have Christmas at my in-laws house and tomorrow is Christmas with my husbands grandma.
I am excited to say that we have decided that next year we will continue to do our presents on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas Day celebrating Jesus' Birthday. Tomorrow we will be making Jesus a cake for his birthday and talk about the gifts Jesus brought to the Earth. I hope as they get older we can spend Christmas Day giving back to the community and help provide dinner to families in need.
Here are some pictures from our eventful evening last night: