Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is spent at my parents house. That was set early after Keith and I were married. The every-other-year plan for Christmas just wasn't going to cut it for Mom so she snapped up Christmas Eve as her night. Wise woman, my mom.

We eat dinner and then open presents. That used to just kill Justin, who couldn't eat anything if there were presents to unwrap. He has learned to overcome that.

My girls were smiling silly tonight. I usually get a few of these, but this night these faces were the majority. Apparently, I never told them that their faces would stick that way {or they didn't believe me}. Both are equally likely.

Zella opening her present {from us}. Three guesses what it is {and the first two don't count}.

You guessed it, a Littlest Pet Shop set. It was promptly opened and played with.

Grammy did some last minute gift knitting, which is very impressive. Much better than mine, which still sit, unfinished {and unblogged so no one would know that I might possibly give them as gifts}. Perhaps, they'll be finished by next year? Don't get your hopes up!

More of Grammy's handiwork.

More handiwork and more goofy. I hate to tell you, but their faces actually did stick that way. We tried a variety of things to get them unstuck.

What finally worked?

Cookies.

As a part of Grammy and Pappy's gift, I made them a small calendar that is held in an CD case. The template was posted on Shutter Sisters.

This was our gift from the Barretts. It will be a Christmas album with our pictures from this years Christmas celebrations that Jill will finish for me {which will be fabulous}!

Scrapbooking made easy - how great is that?!

I am very excited to see how it will turn out!

Ah, dessert. The only food worthy of being documented on the blog. Was it the oatmeal raisin cookies, which are my favorite cookies? Or is it the fudge, which is a hands-down fave? It could have been the chocolate chip cookies.

It was all of them. And they were yummy.

Justin has found someone who understands him.

Who knew?

Since we knew that Jill & Charlie would bring their wii {always a given}, we strategically picked a few family gifts that the kids could open on Christmas Eve. Wii Resort was one of them. Of course, the Barretts already had the game and had opened all kinds of fun stuff, so playing on their wii was like getting a sneak peak at what we'll slowly unlock over this next week.

I'll have you notice Zella's grip of Emma's leg while Emma is playing the wii. Too Cute!

They had some time at the table later, putting together a puzzle and playing with the pet shop toys.

And, the last shot of the girls before we had to all pack up and go home. And you gotta go home and go to bed, otherwise Santa doesn't come. Something that Zella knows all to well.

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
lyrics from Santa Clause is Coming to Town