Christmas Eve 2013

I'm not sure if it was Christmas Eve, but I always remember going Christmas shopping with my dad at the very last minute.  We'd take my moms Christmas wish list and get her everything on it.  So what do you think my husband was doing on Christmas Eve while I was at home with the kids?  He spent the entire afternoon Christmas shopping, where I've been shopping for the last two months.  Ryan and I did some crafting for Christmas presents while Jake was taking a nap.  He was a pretty good sport, although he wouldn't stop giggling while I painted his feet.

We would also go to church on Christmas Eve, which we did.  Daddy got home just in time to go to the 5:00 service at church.  The church was filled, as it always is on Christmas Eve and Easter.  It was a beautiful service.  There were also no children's services which meant that we had to take them both into the adult service.  Good thing it was shorter than regular services.  Plus, the kids all got goody bags with a Christmas coloring book, crayons, a door hanger, and stickers.  That kept Ryan busy and I mostly held Jakey.

We still had to stop at Target before we came home because I needed to get stocking stuffers for Tim.  I didn't have time to cook anything for dinner so we had our Christmas Eve dinner at McDonalds.  Maybe that will become a tradition.   Having gross greasy fast food!  I do love fast food, and we hardly ever have it because I would rather make dinner for my family.

When we got home from church, shopping, and eating, I let the kids open up their Christmas Eve boxes.  Our Christmas tree was up, but I didn't put anything under the tree because I didn't want to risk Jake or Ryan trying to open up anything!  I used left over Citrus Lane boxes and packed them new jammies (that I wanted them to wear while they opened their presents in the morning,) hotwheels, marshmallows, popcorn and cookies!  I've seen them on Pinterest with a Christmas movie and hot chocolate.  My kids are too young for hot chocolate and all the cheesy kids Christmas movies are all over Netflix!  They were most excited about their marshmallows.  Yum.

When I was younger, we always wrote our Santa letters at night and left them on our coffee table for Santa to get when he stopped by our house.  That's what I'm going to to with my kids too.  Ryan asked for toys, candy, a bike, and cars.  I helped Jakey with his and we put a bike, trucks, and cars.

After Santa letters, we sat on the couch for popcorn and movies.  I put on "Fred Claus."  I love Christmas movies and I love Vince Vaughn.  Jake and Ryan sat still long enough to finish their popcorn!  Then I put Jake to sleep because he gets sleepy right at bedtime (8:00.)

My mom bought the boys a "cookies for Santa" plate a few years ago.  This year, Tim's mom and his aunt got them one too!  I guess everyone thinks they need one, which they do, but now we have three!  I put them all out for Ryan and told him that he could leave cookies for Santa to eat when he comes by our house.

He chose to put one cookie on each plate.  He was so excited to leave them for Santa.  I filled up a cup with milk and told him to leave them by the cookies so Santa could drink it and Ryan started pouring the milk onto the cookie on the middle plate.  I couldn't help but laugh at him.

I put Ryan to bed at about 9:00 and Santa must have known the kids were both sleeping because he stopped by at 10:00 at night with lots of presents!

I still need to upload pictures from my camera onto the computer from Christmas.  I'll post a Christmas update next.  Merry Christmas!!