Christmas Eve

Okay, so this year being solo with no plans to go and no one to come, we changed it up a little bit. Traditionally on Christmas Eve, Joe cooks a German dinner--homemade noodles called spaetzle, red cabbage called rotkohl, and beef with gravy called rouladen. I come up with some sides--rolls, salad, etc. It is really good and his family started that tradition years ago when his oldest sister, Shelly, went on her mission to Germany. (Joe, his brother Charlie, his uncle, and Grandpa all served missions there as well so German has started to run through their veins) We have continued that tradition as well with our family. When we moved to San Antonio 4.5 years ago, Joe's brother Charlie moved here as well and we always got together with them and had the dinner and acted out the nativity. This past summer, Charlie and his family moved to El Paso so we had Christmas Eve by ourselves for the first time in 4 years. Joe decided to change our tradition this year because our kids really aren't that fond of German food yet so his idea was that we are going to see Christmas lights and eat at a restaurant on Christmas Eve until our kids get old enough to appreciate that good food. So that is exactly what we did. We had never been to the Riverwalk at Christmastime so we decided to go there and eat at the Rainforest Cafe. The kids were so excited to eat at that restaurant. We ate about mid-afternoon and saw the lights right as they came on just before 6:00.

The lights at the Riverwalk weren't anything spectacular (there's nothing that beats Temple Square) but it was still fun to be there walking along the river with the restaurants, boat rides, people, and Christmas music. It was even a little bit chilly so it felt more like Christmas, even without snow.



We were home by 7:00 and then we still had the evening to do our other traditions--Christmas pj's, a brand new ornament, hot cocoa and popcorn, nativity, and Christmas stories before snuggling all together in the same bedroom (Carlee had to sleep alone cuz she still needs her beauty rest) and talking until the kids fall asleep. Another exception to our traditional Christmas Eve is that we didn't give "Christmas" pj's. Since it is so warm in San Antonio and our kids are little furnaces that sleep out of the covers anyway, we didn't buy the warm snuggly Christmas print pj's. We gave the boys their favorite--camo pants and muscle tees! The girls got pink and green stiped shorty pj's which Katelyn thought looked like candy canes anyway so I guess it worked. Usually while the kids sleep all together, Joe and I watch "White Christmas". It is one of our favorite holiday movies. But again, we broke tradition because Joe fell asleep about 8:00 after a very long weekend on-call where he worked about 41 hours straight. At least he was a good sport about walking along the river. Maybe he was sleep-walking. I'll never know. But it was a great night anyway and the kids were so excited for the morning to come . . .