Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve began with getting our last packages full of gifts from Aunts and Uncles. Lily loved helping open the boxes and helping put the gifts under the tree. With each package that came she just kept saying she couldn't wait until Christmas and that it was so exciting. And, yes it is exciting to watch the amount of presents under your tree grow by the day.

Mike and I decided that we would wait until Christmas Eve night to put out the gifts we had gotten the girls to make it that much more exciting.

During lunch we suffered a loss. Our Cookies for Santa plate lost it's battle with the ceramic tile floor. Can you guess the grabby hands that did this?? It wasn't the guilty little girl you see in the picture was it?

Our morning continued with more cookie baking! Today, cut-out sugar cookies and thumbprint cookies. Lily did great today. She listened extremely well, was very patient and was so excited to finally bake more cookies. When it was time to ice the cookies and decorate them she did great too. But, she taste tested a lot of the toppings :).

While we were baking and getting ready to get the house ready for Santa, Emma did a lot of playing. Finally we were able to see if the pack-n-play doubled as a ball pit and it worked like a charm. The girls had a lot of fun.

We then were able to go to our church for the first time on Christmas Eve. They offered three services this evening 5, 8, and 11 but we opted for the 5pm service just due to scheduling. There were a lot of kids at this service for obvious reasons I'm sure but otherwise not too crowded. I think our most favorite part was at the end when we all held lit candles, the lights were turned off and we all sang Silent Night, without music. It was the most quiet, surreal experiences we've had and it was amazing. The girls were mesmerized by the candlelight and were absolutely silent which definitely helped.

After returning home, taking a few pictures and changing we ate dinner. Our dinner, another tradition continuing, consisted of the leftover stuffed peppers and homemade pizza. Yep, the pizza is from my side of the family. We never really traveled during the holidays so the four of us would always make pizza as a family. So, we have adopted this as well as our Christmas Eve tradition.

Next was opening of ornaments. This tradition is from my side of the family, where we each get a new ornament for the tree and a new family ornament. Mike and I are in awe of my parent's tree and can't wait to see what ours will look like after almost 40 years of marriage. But, it's already fun to look back at the ornaments we have collected on trips and from our years together.

And, a new tradition that we've added...sister gifts. Lily and Emma shopped for each other and tonight they were able to give them to one another. Emma didn't know what was going on but absolutely loves the Ariel doll Lily picked out for her. And, Lily was so excited to not only get her sissy gift (a learn to dress doll) but to give Emma hers. It was so sweet to watch them be genuinely excited for each other and sharing their dolls.

The final stop of Christmas Eve was leaving cookies for Santa, an apple for Rudolph and a letter for Santa. This year, Lily wanted to ask Santa if Fern could stay with us to open all of our gifts instead of going back to the North Pole with him. She loves Santa and has like the 'Polar Express' girl has, a lot of Christmas Spirit.