Christmas Eve

Well... I'm being harassed about not writing anything since Thanksgiving, so here I am. ;)

Obviously I have a whole month to catch up on, and it was one busy month.  So I'm just going to start with Christmas.  And in order to start with Christmas, I have to start with Christmas Eve.

I had actually worked the night before until 2 AM, so our day started out slow and low key.  But as soon as we finished lunch, we dove into decorating Christmas cookies.  We had actually decorated cookies earlier in the month (a post on that coming), so I didn't take many pictures this time.  But we all 4 participated and had fun.  Then we played a little bit, and got ready for our churches Christmas Eve service.

It was our first time at a live nativity, and the kids were awestruck!

Logan couldn't take his eyes off of the animals that were over to the side. ;)  They had fun petting them for just a few short minutes, and then we went in to find seats.

Our church moved into our brand new building earlier in the month, so this was Olivia's first time in the adult sanctuary and she was excited.

Logan was just excited to be holding a candle. :)

We had a friend snap a picture of us real quick, so we don't have many pictures with all 4 of us.  She took at least a dozen.  It's pretty much impossible to get a good one.. .between Olivia's fake smiles and the toddler with a thousand faces.  We'll get a good one eventually. Ha!

From there we headed to dinner.  And Logan spent the entire meal on my lap.

Neither of my kids have ever been social sleepers.  Even if they fall asleep in the car, they wake up immediately when we take them out.  Except this time.  He must have been very tired!  He's in that weird stage where he can go without a nap, but sometimes hanging until bed is hard.  But if he naps, then he wants to play in his bed until 11 o'clock at night.  I'm not sure what the answer is on that one.

We tried to go to one place, but it ended up being closed for the holiday.  So instead of driving around and looking for somewhere, we just went with a very small local Chinese place.  This is Olivia saying, "I like Chinese.  I actually like Chinese food!"  Ha ha!  I've never seen someone so excited about white rice.

When we got home, the kids put out the carrots and reindeer food that they had made earlier.

We all got in our jammies and snuggled in to watch Polar Express.

Obligatory pajama picture by the tree.  Side note: I got her that doll a year ago to go to a birthday party.  She had hardly even played with it.  But when she got new Christmas pajamas for Day 1 of advent, she got a dolly and me set.  Somehow having her doll have matching pajamas sent her into a doll craze.  Emily goes everywhere with us and Olivia tells us how hard it is to be a mom. ;)

Excited kiddos!

We set out milk and cookies for Santa, and then put these guys to bed.

Santa had to wait quite a while, because it took these two littles forever to fall asleep.  Olivia could still be heard talking and singing at 10:30!

Santa finally made his appearance.  He filled everyone's stockings!  Michael and I haven't exchanged gifts in a few years, but Olivia kept making such a big deal about what Santa was going to fill our stockings with that we actually went ahead and filled them this year.

When I asked the kids a month or so ago what they wanted from Santa, Logan said "Legos and more legos".  So that's what I got him.  But then about a week before we went to see Santa, he found this Superman doll at Target and decided he must have it.  So when he sat on Santa's lap, that is what he asked for.  So Santa brought both.

When we asked Olivia what she wanted, she really couldn't come up with much.  (To which I turned to Michael and said, "I feel like we've done something right as parents that our child doesn't have a wishlist a mile long.  She can't even think of one thing she wants.")  After some talk and guidance she chose a Little Mermaid lego set.  But after the doll pajamas and falling in love with Emily, she changed her mind to doll stuff.  We walked the aisles of Target, and she picked out a few favorites. And when Santa asked her what she wanted and she said, "Stuff for my Emily doll", he said, "Like what kind of stuff?".  She said, "My mom sent you a picture, remember?" and he quickly replied, "Oh, yes.  I remember now."  :)  

We had a few presents under the tree from Mommy and Boppa and grandparents.

Let the fun begin!