Christmas Eve

 

Christmas Eve

we spent Christmas eve at my parents and then went home and found our pajamas left by the elf. Tammy also made us shirts that we love, complete with a matching ornament! such a special Christmas.

the girls decided to use the plate they painted with Santa for the cookies!  such an exciting night!

Christmas Eve

we spent christmas eve at my parents as usual. we had soup in bread bowls and my dad's yummy punch.

i had seen this online and fell in love with it and knew my parents would love it.  however, i knew i couldn't afford it on my own at $10 a piece and 4 times that for the sofa!  so i hit up my siblings and they all paid for their own kids and we split the cost of the sofa, grandparents and dog.  i love it.  each grandchild is there and it's the first piece with new little lovina in the family!  i had fun playing with it and rearranging the kids. :0)  the top one is in order of birth from left to right.  the bottom one is putting the boys on the top of the couch with the dog and the new baby in the middle. :)

before the night was done, santa read 'twas the night before christmas.

and grandpa read from the scriptures.

then we piled in our cars and went looking at christmas lights before going home.  this house was fantastic!  by far my favorite so far!

when we got home we discovered eve the elf left us presents!  we each opened them to discover monkey pajamas.

trying to set up the timer was a treat but we got it!

the girls were then off to bed and santa stayed up for 5 hours putting together the girls amazing kitchen!  i was quite grateful.  kg normally works christmas eve.  i set things up and we celebrate when he gets home christmas morning at 7:30 am before he goes to bed. so i ordered this kitchen knowing i'd be putting it together.  but christmas happened to fall during his normal 6-day weekend.  i was so excited for that!   since santa was off, he did.  i can't even imagine how long it would have taken me!  thanks santa!

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 :)

Christmas Eve

The whole day was packed full of fun! In the morning we put Flower in a big bubble bath while we finished up our 12 days of Christmas! :) Although this may be too much information for some(if so don't read the next few sentences), this is my journal and I don't ever want to forget this! Plus, I want my kids to read this when I'm all old and senile and know that at one point, mom and dad could really get their groove thing on! Soooo, 78 org*sms(for me) in 12 days....MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME! :)
After that we were starving so we all went to breakfast at Jim's Coffee Shop. I knew that Joni was working and wanted to wish her a Merry Christmas. We played with the camera and just had a great time being silly.





We then took a big load of stuff to the Idaho Youth Ranch. KG and I went through Flower closet last night getting rid of a bunch of toys knowing she will be getting more for Christmas. When we got home KG went to bed and I worked on mom's Christmas gift. After a bit I decided to put in Polar Express because Flower hasn't seen it yet. As soon as that movie started she was snuggled up on my lap and totally mesmerized! She loved it! When it got to the 'Hot Chocolate' song she turned and said she wanted hot chocolate so we paused the movie and made us some hot cocoa. She thought it was so cool that she was drinking hot cocoa at the same time as the kids. She had me replay that seen three times!
She was cracking me up. She was so into it that she would scream at the tv. The part shown in the photo below when he goes on top of the train looking for the girl, she is screaming, "Be careful!" She was so worried about him falling and getting hurt. :)

We both ended up falling asleep near the end of the movie and slept for a couple of hours all cuddled up on the sofa. I really enjoyed that!
We woke up just in time to leave for my parents house for our annual Christmas Eve gathering.
We each brought appetizer's to share. My sister's family then opened the gifts from us. I made that dress, inside the shadow box, 5 1/2 years ago. Kas was blessed in it. I crocheted it and it took me 99 hours! I wanted to it to be taken care of and show cased and it took me this long to get it in a shadow box! I love how it turned out and hope my sister does too.
The rest of them seemed to enjoy their gifts as well. Yay. We gave Kas two dresses that are reversible, Gregg got a gift card for itunes, and Spencer was gifted a scrapbook that i made with all the photos I've ever taken of him this year. I love how it turned out!



Kas had my camera for a bit and didn't do too bad!


Santa Claus read us all Twas the Night Before Christmas before we put Flower in her Christmas jammies and slippers. Lorelai also got decked out in hers. Both the girls looked so cute and Flower had no problem posing!


All of us then piled in our cars to go check out a home all decked out for Christmas. I went to high school with the couple that live there. It was really well done and very entertaining! They have the lights in sync to music that you tune your car stereo to. There were five or six songs so it was fun to all be in our cars groovin to the music!
When we got home Flower set out a plate of cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer. Look how neat she lined them up. (Santa came in early and took a bite of one of the cookies before I could get a photo! Shame on him!) ;)
After Flower went to bed we cleaned things up. We moved some things around in her room so that new toys would fit. KG put the bed together that we bought for her doll, I put together the train set and also finished mom's gift. KG went to work and I made a huge plate full of crepes for the guests we are having over in the morning! I can hardly wait for the morning time to come! I am so excited to see Flower's face and just share this time with her. I am off to bed now to attempt falling asleep!