Christmas Eve

The last few years we have really enjoyed making our own traditions with our little family.  This year we snacked on treats and listened to a spiritual message from Daddy.  This year we asked the kids to give "service" presents to each other instead of buying presents.  We spent some time writing them out on card to give the next day.

The last few years, Roger has gotten the family some board games and we open one on Christmas Eve and play them together.  This year we played  and fun was had by all.  Our family is finally at an age where we can do things like this and everyone can participate.

The kids opened their traditional 1 present on Christmas Eve.  This year they all opened one that I made for them.  Personalized blankets with pictures of them throughout their lives.  I think they were a big hit.

Then it was off to bed.  Brianna was especially worried that Santa would skip us by if we weren't asleep.  The enthusiasm of children is so sweet and rubbed off on all of us.

It was a perfect day.

Christmas Eve Afternoon

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon with Missy's family, Amber and Dane, and of course the Grandparents.  We had a lovely Christmas meal and dessert, played board games, visited and played this fun game with M&M's. 

We saved our Big Christmas party for when Brendan's family arrived later in the week.

We had to take pictures with "Bob" the Santa on the front porch.  Alyssa named him that a few years ago and it stuck.

Christmas Eve Morning

Brianna wrote a paper in school about a favorite Christmas tradition.  She wrote about going to Denny's for breakfast on Christmas Eve.  (We did this once 2 years ago) but apparently she loved it.  So of course we had to go this year.  Here are a few pics of the good time we had together.

After breakfast we went to the Movie Prince Caspian.  We usually try to go sledding on Christmas Eve but since the snow was all melted from the rain, that was out.  We improvised and still had a great time.