Christmas Eve

This year we seemed to have had an extra enjoyable Christmas eve because it was so relaxed.  Gigi and Poppy decided to do our Christmas dinner on Christmas day again (something we haven't done in a long time) and it was nice to not have to drive all over the place on Christmas eve.  We had planned on going to church, but with the weather being so nasty and the fact that there wasn't going to be any childcare, we decided to skip out this year.  I was really, really bummed, but I most likely wouldn't have enjoyed myself anyway because I would've been coralling two very busy little girls.  Anyways, I spent the morning finishing up come cooking and baking our annual Christmas morning casseroles while Jay kept the girls busy doing this

The girls were so cute "oohhing and aahhing" under the tree and I remember doing the same thing when I was little like them.  Part of their excitement could've been that Daddy actually let them touch some of the ornaments, something mean ole' Mommy doesn't allow. Ha!

The rest of our day was spent watching Christmas shows, napping and getting ready to head down to our neighbors Christmas eve open house.  If it hadn't been a rainy and nasty night, we would've walked but we all piled in Daddy's truck to drive 6 houses...it felt just a tad ridiculous! We enjoyed our visit with friends and I also reminisced about the many, many years we spent at the Kerns' house on Christmas eve, definitely some of my most favorite memories of my childhood.  I didn't snap any pictures while we were at the party because I was busy chasing the girls and visiting, but here are some pictures of my little sillies before we left

While we were gone, Santa made a stop at our house and surprised with some Christmas jammies! This is something that Santa has done ever since I was a little girl and I'm so happy that he has carried on the tradition with our family.  Ever since I can remember, my Dad has read us "Twas the Night Before Christmas" after we got our PJ's on and before we raced up the stairs to bed.  Since we didn't go to Gigi and Poppy's for Christmas Eve, the honors of reading were left to Jay.  In addition to our PJ's, Santa also left us our own copy of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and another book that has the best Santa Pictures in it.  Ella wasted no time with her present and knew exactly what to do, but Landrie wanted us to open her present for her.  I think she was just too excited about everything going on around her.  Once we all got changed, we got down to the business of story time!

With the excitement of Santa's impending arrival, everyone was a little hyped up.  The boys were being their usual silly selves and the girls were just wired and didn't have any idea what they had in store in the morning.  One of my most favorite memories from this night happened before cousin Kyle or Gigi and Poppy arrived, so we have no photographic evidence.  Although, if there was a camera around it probably wouldn't have happened! It was just the 6 of us and we had just changed into our PJ's.  The only lights on were the Christmas tree and garlands and a lamp by the kitchen sink.  There was Christmas music playing and I was standing next to Jay watching the kids play.  Ella (like she usually does when Jay and I are standing near each other) said to me "Dance a Daddy! Dance wif him!" So of course we obliged like we always do and she clapped and squealed and before we knew it, the girls had paired up with the boys and our family room was our ballroom.  It was so cute and so special to me and I will remember it forever! Although we don't have pictures of this, these are some of the others from when we were goofing around

And one last picture of the 6 of us in our Christmas PJ's! Love it and so happy that 4 out of the 6 of us cooperated! Just kidding, it is P.E.R.F.E.C.T!!