Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a good day.

Even though there was no snow...or even need a coat to go outside (it was in the 50s at least)

Hailey made pumpkin pie filling all by herself. It was yummy & had a mysterious "candy cane imprint" on the top of one of the pies. How? We do not know. It's a Christmas miracle ;)

The kids all helped make chocolate no-bakes for Santa {and tiny ones for his elves}...this is one cookie where there can be too many cooks in the kitchen...they did not turn out quite right. Santa & his elves loved them though.

Dinner was good...as always :)

Oliver really, really, really wants to eat our food...Elias had quite the time trying to keep him away from his plate.

Then we watched "Ernest Saves Christmas" it was dorky.  The kids loved it.  It reminded me that the early 90s were odd :)

A new tradition was added this year {we have A LOT of traditions around here...I may need to keep a notebook soon} The kids acted out the story of Christ's birth while I read from Luke 2...as opposed to them just "listening" (aka goofing around) as I read.  They LOVED it...and I think that they got so much more out of the story.  Curtis was a shepherd, Hailey was Mary & the angels and Owen was Joseph and a shepherd.

We read "The Night Before Christmas"...Then it was gift time...finally {as Owen would say...I think he asked us 47 times when we were going to open presents} First jammies from papa & shorty..then the kids exchange gifts with each other.  We draw names...this year it was fun because the addition of Oliver mixed it up a bit...it's not so fun to draw names with only 3 kids. Oliver loved opening his presents and did better than we expected...but then again he loves to grab everything and anything...and eat anything and everything :)

The only sad thing this year is we now have two non-believers...we held on as long as we could, just makes me {and them...they still want to believe} a little sad...but they are just as excited to keep the magic alive as we are :)