~Christmas Eve 2010~

"After all there's only one more sleep til' Christmas!"(from the Muppet Christmas Carol) All Christmas Eve day that line played through my head. I really do love Christmas. It's my favorite time of year. Christmas Eve was a fun filled day with the family, playing, preparing for the exciting day to come and prepping for Alec's birthday only a few days later. Late afternoon rolled around and we all got dressed up for Christmas Eve dinner with some of our closest friends like family, the Welchs. I pulled out my hot curlers for the first time in a year, and after only a few minutes my little lady had bouncy ringlets. I couldn't help but take a picture as we loaded into the van.

Sadly I completely forgot I had my camera with me the entire time we were dining with friends. The food was delightful, the company wonderful, the conversation quite humorous. It's so nice to have friends who understand what it is like to dine with little children. ;-) We watched a short church film about the birth of Christ, cozied up by the fireplace, and talked of family. Then we all gathered around and ate angel food cake for dessert (poetic no?), though there was no singing of Happy Birthday to Jesus, per Tiffany's request. What a yummy, lovely evening!

When we got home the kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement. First we acted out the Nativity with our little people while Nick read the Christmas story to us from the Bible. Then we sang Joy to the World (the only song I know how to play out of Hymn's Made Easy). Side Note: Just as my mother predicted, I sure wish I hadn't given up piano. Then Nick pulled out his Saxophone and played lots and lots of Christmas songs for us while the kids used their instruments. Nick also gifted to me a concert of "our song", Moon River. It was beautiful. I'm pretty sure at some point we all sang Bless Us All as well. That has to be my favorite Christmas song of all time.

Then it was time for some presents! Woohoo! We do sibling presents on Christmas Eve so they don't get lost in the shuffle of Christmas morning. I can't remember exactly what they all gave each other, but I do know that they were excited to give them and excited to receive them. They were very thoughtful and generous with each other and it was beautiful to watch.

Then the kids got to open a special present from Grandma Lael and Grandpa Stuart! They were sooooo excited about their special Christmas jammies.

It didn't take long before they were out of their dinner clothes and into their snuggly warm pjs.

I love pictures of my three little ones all together.

This picture makes me want to jump on the couch and join in on the snuggles.

Then it was time to put out the cookies and milk for Santa. We planned to make brownie peppermint ice cream hot fudge sundae's that day and thought Santa might like to mix things up and have brownies instead of cookies this year. :-) Side Note: Isn't that plate cute? My friend made it for me for Christmas a few years back and the kids and I were so excited to pull it out and put it to good use.

Then we all snuggled up and read The Night Before Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas before heading to bed. Well, the kids headed to bed. Mom and Dad still had lots of work to do, cleaning up the house so Santa could come. In fact, I'm pretty sure we were up until 1 or 2 in the morning.

In all honesty I was really worried about our first Christmas Eve without family. There are sooo many traditions that make Christmas for me that I knew we would not be able to pull off with our own young family of five... yet when all was sad and done the night was wonderful. We ate good food, we sang joyous songs, we loved on each other, and we felt the spirit.

I couldn't ask for more.