Merry Christmas Eve!

Our Christmas Eve was fabulous.
The whole day was great. I didn't have to work so we went to my parents at 2:30. I spent the afternoon helping mom cook the meal. We made all our favorites...ham, green bean casserole, blueberry muffins, corn, rolls, mom's cherry jell-o, and then Amanda brought the BEST potatoes! We got out her Christmas China and set the table.
Her small plates are the 12 days of Christmas.
With 12 of us in attendance it worked out perfect.
It was nice to spend relaxed time with her. We all cuddled up and watched old Christmas cartoons like Flintstones and Yogi Bear.
It was really nice.
At 6:30 my brother and sister's families arrived and we ate dinner. Right as we were done my older brother's family rolled in from Vegas. They came just to have the gift exchange and then went on their way to McCall.

Each year we rotate names with out siblings, only buying gifts for one family. This year my sister has us.
They gifted Flower Mamma Mia. Talk about a home run! She is thrilled.
KG and I were gifted Catch Phrase. Excellent.
And River was gifted this adorable dress! I love blue and brown together.

When they left we broke out the dessert and watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas, as we do each year. During all of that we also made time to Skype Amanda in China. It was so good to see and talk to her again. It's been too long!
The past couple of years we've gone to look at Christmas lights too but we ran out of time this year. We had to leave by 10:00 to get home in time for KG to leave for work. We really should have left sooner in order to prepare a few things together but we were having a good time. It also took us twice as long as normal because of the snow storm. I'm pretty sure he was late. :)
As I get us settled for the night...
...the advent calendar is appropriately empty...
...Flower is fast asleep while visions of sugar-plums dance in her head...
...and River watches as I clean and organize in preparation for Santa to arrive.
I have had butterflies all day in anticipation for Christmas morning. We have talked to a few people recently about Santa Claus and the different opinions these days. I am just grateful that I have had the magic of him in my life, both as a child and now. He just has a different role now then he did then. I have never stopped believing and I get just as excited now as I did when I was a kid.
I hope you all feel like a kid again as Christmas approaches, because that's how it should be.
Kisses,
Angee :)