Christmas Eve

We spent the morning on the 24th cleaning the house, wrapping a few last minute presents, and a tiny bit of shopping. The afternoon passed quickly as we tried to get all the dinner preparations done before my family was coming over around 3:00.

 

My parents and my brother Jason and his family made the trek out here to celebrate with us. All the boys enjoyed tossing the football in the backyard, my mom talked about the Sand Dollar and its symbolism, broke it open (much to the horror of some of the kids!) and showed the 5 little white doves inside.

We played Christmas Bingo (there were prizes for anyone who got a bingo). Pictionary was a big hit, even Lexi drew a pretty impressive upside down candy cane which was quickly guessed by her teammates! 

 

 Jen had a craft for the kids, they decorated foam Christmas Trees and Snowmen. It was really fun just to be together. 

 Jason & Jen headed home after that to do their own dinner and nativity. My parents stayed and we feasted on a stuffed Pork Loin, glazed carrots, potato casserole, jello salad, and "better than Robert Redford" dessert.  

After dinner, we read the nativity story in Luke 2, sang some Christmas songs and the kids opened up new pajamas. By this point, they were so excited, they could hardly stand it.

 My parents left, we did a webcam visit with Marc's parents. We knew with the time difference and craziness of schedules on Christmas, we wouldn't get a chance to talk with them. The kids were bouncing off the walls, but we managed to somewhat hold a conversation. Bob & Deb opened their present from us, a photo calendar that had a collage of pictures every month and individual pictures on everyone's birthday. They asked to see the kids open up the present they had given the kids, (good thing we already had it assembled!) and the kids got to open another present, a play kitchen. 

We could barely pull them away from the kitchen, but with the threat that Santa wouldn't come until they were asleep, they hustled into bed and anxiously tried to go to sleep.  I love Christmas Eve! It's such a fun night of excitement and anticipation, but reverent and holy at the same time. For me, its the epitome of the Christmas Season.  It's about the time spent together as a family, the joy of being a family, and really reflecting on the birth of the Savior and remembering why we're celebrating in the first place.