Christmas Eve

We slept in on Christmas Eve morning and slowly got ourselves ready for the day.  We cleaned up the yard a bit and made sure that everything in the house was in order.  We had a late breakfast and just relaxed until it was time for dinner.  Our Christmas Eve Dinner Out tradition has stayed.  Woohoo!  This year we went to BJ's Restaurant.  It is one of our favorite restaurants with lots and lots of delicious choices so everybody goes home happy with their meal choice.  We were off by ourselves in a section of the restaurant and we had a great time.  The Oldhams (except deployed Jake), the Swaseys (except deployed Drew), the Hathaways, and the Craguns joined us in our Christmas Eve fun.

 The Craguns just sent their oldest son on a mission around the 19th of December and during dinner they received their first email from him.  They were so excited as they were reading it.  

Tim was especially thrilled that Garret was speaking/writing in Spanish.

(Adison, Ami, Avery, Tim, Kenley (with Kirsten Hathaway in the background))

When the kids were done eating but the adults were not done chatting, they grabbed the cameras and entertained themselves.  They are too funny-

 Clark and Mitchell

Nedra

 Evan; Audrey and Katelyn;

Cole and Jake; Kirsten and Evan

 Avery; Clara; Carlee

 On to decorating cookies for Santa-

Then to acting out the Nativity-

 I love how all dress-up bins from all houses are raided and combined to come up with "costumes".  I really need to make/purchase some "authentic" nativity costumes but I love how creative the kids get when putting them together.  My favorites this year are the wolf-donkey, the court jester-wiseman, and the flowy sparkly angel.

Tim led the kids in playing Christmas carols on the chimes-

When the party was over, we opened our traditional pajamas with the Swaseys before they went home. 

I thought I was pretty funny this year and ordered the same striped pajamas for all four kids, boys and girls.  Their reaction was awesome.   I had searched and searched for weeks for the perfect Christmas jammies but sizes were sold out, I wasn't in love with any that I found, or they weren't the right "style".  When I found the striped ones, I figured that they could be worn by boys or girls.  Since my kids are getting older and I probably wouldn't be able to get away with it in the years to come, I took my chance and ordered them. 

 Carlee opened her pajamas first and when Jake opened his next and saw that they were the same, he exclaimed, "What the? We have the same ones?!?  Noooo!"

Katelyn just laughed and Clark threw his hands up with a smirk and just shook his head.  I was giggling and the kids were great sports to humor me with their matching pj's.

 Some darling kids in their new Christmas pajamas!

After the Swaseys left, we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas", followed Santa's location for a few minutes, set out the cookies and milk, completed the bedtime routine and the kids snuggled up in Katelyn's bed. 

 The kids made the bed how they wanted it right when they woke up this morning.  They even have post-it notes with their names of where they are supposed to sleep.  I love these kids of mine!