Christmas Eve & Day

The week of Christmas, all five of us had the unfortunate ill-luck to get pretty sick. There's nothing like preparing for the biggest holiday of the year when you feel like garbage. Fortunately, we were all able to get well enough to enjoy Christmas Eve.

We started out our Christmas Eve by opening our Christmas Eve presents (which by tradition are new pajamas to sleep in). The boys were very excited about their new Mario Cart pajamas and Jake loved his Thomas the Train jammies and slippers. We took a few pictures of them under the tree.







We had invited our friends the Cobbs to join us at the Dickinson Lights Display, but the weather turned out to be icy cold. So instead, they came over to enjoy some homemade hot chocolate (which turned out to be super chocolatey) with whipped cream & marshmallows and play a few games. We also made sure to track Santa's progress on the NORAD Santa Tracker. We just love the Cobbs, so we all had a blast.

Soon, however, it was time to put out cookies and milk for Santa. David had also made some Reindeer food at school, so we sprinkled that on the lawn as well. After much giddiness and confusion, we finally got the kiddos off to bed.

The next morning, the kids crept into our room one by one (except for Jake, of course. He screamed until we took him into our room). We were so surprised at how patient they all were! Finally, after mom and dad were FINALLY ready, we rushed down the stairs to open presents. The boys received such a surprise! A 3DS for both of them from Santa! Wow! He must have gotten a super sweet deal on those things! Jake received THE LOUDEST toy popping lawn-mower in existence (stupid Santa's elves).

It was Beyblade Dream Christmas. We are now owners of just about every kind of Beyblade equipment available.



We also threw in a few snuggly blankets for the boys (they love them).


Jake was very interested in unwrapping presents...at first. If he came to a tricky part, he would immediately hand it off to you, shouting, "Oh NOOOO!"


Jake also found the one cookies (with a bite taken out of it) that Santa left behind. He made short work of it.


After presents, we had a huge Christmas breakfast and Mom baked for Christmas dinner at Grandpa's. We had church service at 2pm, so we decided to snap a photo before the tree since we were all gussied up.


Christmas dinner at Grandpa's was lovely. We had a delicious dinner followed by yummy desserts, and then opened some wonderful presents. It's so nice to have family close by to celebrate with.

And now, readers, now I am off the hook for Christmas for at least 360-odd days. PHEW!