Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve!  As a child, I remember gathering as a family to eat dinner.  Then we would read the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth, and open 1 present each.  My mom always tried to pick a present that would be fun for us to enjoy that night and it was always so fun.

So, with my own family, I wanted to carry on this tradition.  On Christmas Eve this year, we spent our time at home, with Natalie and I making some Sugar Cookies, and Pumpkin Pie together.  Then I made our Christmas Feast for all of us to enjoy.  It was just our small family this year, so we had a lot of leftover food!

After dinner, we read the Christmas story of Jesus’ Birth while the girls played with their Nativity.  They did great for the first little bit, but then (after failing to find Baby Jesus) realized that Dad was in the perfect position to attack him with hugs.  I tried to tell the girls to be reverent, but they are such Daddy’s Girls!  Luckily though, Natalie understood well before this night that we were celebrating Jesus’ birth.  After-all, Santa did not come to our house alone on Christmas Eve.  According to Natalie, Jesus brought our presents, and Santa was just Jesus’ helper.  Oh, how I love her innocence!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve Adventures:

Natalie pretty much made these cookies all by herself.  I helped her get the correct measurements, and roll out the dough, but she did everything else!

Here are the girls being crazy.  At first, they listened to the scripture story just fine, but as soon as they realized Baby Jesus was missing, they turned their attention to Daddy, and clobbered him with hugs and kisses!  Needless to say, Daddy had a little bit of a hard time finishing his reading.

For those of you who know Natalie’s love for her Baby Bear from Daddy:

Natalie decided she wanted to buy Baby Bear 2 presents this year.  So, she bought her a Princess T-shirt and a Brush to keep her soft.  This is Natalie “helping” baby bear open her Christmas Eve present, which just happened to fit the girls’ gifts perfectly – much to Natalie’s excitement!

Christmas Eve presents for the girls this year were new Princess Pajamas.  Natalie has been wanting a pair of Princess Jammies for a LONG time. I’m not sure Maejae really cares about Princesses yet (she’s an Elmo and Mickey fan), but at least she had fun opening her gift.