'Twas the Night Before Christmas

I think Christmas Eve is the most exciting day of the holiday season.  I love that building anticipation of the next morning, the crowded church service, the warm glowing of candles as we sing "Silent Night", the way the lights outside seem to twinkle a little brighter, the cozy feeling of putting on pajamas after wearing stockings to church, the warmth of the house with just the Christmas tree lights lit and one other light, and the reading of The Polar Express snuggled up with my family.  I love Christmas Eve!

This year, again, did not disappoint.  It was a really special day for our little family.  For the second year in a row, we stayed at home.  Not traveling makes a huge difference, especially with kids.  My parents were our only guests this year.  It was a small gathering.  It was perfect.

In the past, my mom's family celebrated Christmas Eve with the 7 fishes dinner.  Well, they still do, we aren't able to attend as easily with kids.  It is one of my favorite family traditions.  I thought about keeping the tradition, on a smaller scale, but when my friend Amy mentioned going out for Christmas Eve dinner, I was easily swayed to start a new tradition.  I moved our crab cake dinner to Christmas dinner and made a reservation at The Outback.  Now, if you know Jason and me well, you know we poo-poo chains.  My first choice place was closed and there weren't many other options close to church.  So The Outback it was.

G and Poppop arrived around 3, Daddy came home from work about the same time, we got all dressed up, and headed out to dinner around 4:15.

My angel in gold

This is what happens when you ask a
two year old to say "cheese"

My little loves in holiday attire

Just for the record, The Outback in no way compared to Mommom, Aunt Carol, and Uncle Bill's fish dinner!  But I had no prep and no dishes, so I can't complain too much.

We arrived a few minutes early for the 6 PM church service.  It was just enough time to let Evie and Braylen play in the lobby (with all the other toddlers) and burn off some steam.  We typically put our kids in the nursery during church so it was the first time since last year we had both of them with us.  My normal mindset is to sit close to the back to allow for a quick exit and hopefully no one will be distracted by us (ha!).  This time we went with the closer to the front, the better.  We sat in the second row back.  It worked perfectly!  Evie stood in the aisle with her song sheet belting out her own tune as she watched the worship leader sing.  Picking a seat where she could see everything made a big difference.  She also really liked the LED candles...

This girl loves to sing about Jesus

While we were at church, Penny (our elf), went back to the North Pole and left a gift for the kids.

One gift showed up under the tree when we got home

A note to Evie from Penny.
Penny told her to leave some snacks out for Santa
and the reindeer.

New pajamas for the whole family from Penny!

Evie loves her reindeer pajamas!  Evie suggested we leave out carrots for the reindeer.  We sit in the car almost every day at watch the "horsies" on Frederick Road.  We talk a lot about what horses eat- grass, hay, apples, carrots.

Snacks for Santa and his reindeer

I think we all know who really ate all the food

While I was snapping pictures, we noticed Evie holding her pajamas next to the plate.  We finally realized she was trying to feed the reindeer on her pajamas the carrot.

So naturally we ran with it...

We were crying we were laughing so hard at this point

We put our little ones to bed, both in red, reindeer pajamas.  Braylen was too tired to hear The Polar Express, but Evie and Daddy kept up this tradition.  Evie kept talking about the reindeer coming.  I am so excited that Evie is getting older and starting to "get it".  Christmas with kids is so much fun!

The adults poured some egg nog, ate some cookies, and brought up all the gifts.  

All ready for Christmas morning!

Good night!