Christmas Eve

December 24, 2016

We woke up Christmas Eve morning to a toilet paper wrapped tree in the family room.  Silly Eddie. 

After cleaning that mess up we got right to celebrating with Rudolph pancakes for breakfast.

Our Christmas scripture countdown was completed at breakfast.

Christmas songs were played on the piano,

sugar cookies were made,

Santa was tracked,

and cookies were decorated.

One puzzle was completed.  We loved this Portland puzzle!

And we started another puzzle when the rest of the family got there.  

We ate a yummy dinner and then sat down to watch the 2015 Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert.  Grandma always brings the DVD for us.  But this year she brought the case without the DVD!  Oops!  We found a shortened version of the concert on PBS so we watched some of it.  We were a little bummed, we sure like to watch those concerts!  It has become a favorite Christmas Eve tradition. 

The nativity play was next. 

Grace and Isaac played a few of the Christmas carols we sing throughout the play.

Then the kids opened their Christmas Eve pajamas.  For some reason I don’t have a picture of Emma opening hers! 

The twins put out magic reindeer food to attract Santa’s reindeer. 

And cookies for Santa before they were off to bed.

It was such a nice, quiet, and spirit filled Christmas Eve.  Not to mention full of excitement! 

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2015

We had such a nice Christmas Eve.  It started with the twins reading the last scripture on this years countdown chart from The Friend.

   

Christmas Eve day is soooo long when you are 7.  Grace filled up time by sewing together a felt ornament.

She did a good job and it made the perfect topper for the kids tree in the family room.

Tenley spent the night and she played a lot of Slamwich with the kids.

I made gingerbread men this year instead of our traditional sugar cookies.  I loved them, but the kids voted for sugar cookies to come back next year. 

But those gingerbread men turned out so cute!

I found a reindeer made from a gingerbread man on Pinterest and Tenley got right to work recreating it.  I loved it!

I might have to make a batch of gingerbread for myself next year…

When the rest of the family arrived we ate dinner and watched last years Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas program.  We loved it as usual.  The kids look forward to this every year!

Then we acted out the nativity. 

Grace played the part of the angel perfectly by reciting the exact words without any promptings. 

The shepherd was impressed.

After the nativity we sang Christmas carols.  Isaac and Grace each played some songs for us to sing to.

We love celebrating such a sacred holiday with family.

Then it was time for the kids to open their Christmas Eve pajamas. 

It was a choose your own pajama adventure year for Emma and Grace.  They both had a few options to choose from. 

Grace chose the pink nightgown and was thrilled to have a matching one for her doll.  Isaac pretended to be a pirate the rest of the night in his pirate pajamas.

Love these kids!

Isaac and Grace then sprinkled reindeer food on our lawn.  They needed to be sure the reindeer led Santa to our house!

They also put out treats for Santa.

After everybody left we read one last Christmas story under the tree.  We were ready for Christmas morning!