Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning, we had snowmen pancakes for breakfast.  We had a relaxing morning around the house, which happens to be my favorite kind of mornings around here.

 

After playing for a bit, we decided to open the presents that were sent to us from Grandpa Dan and Joanne.  This year they weren't able to celebrate with us because we live 7 hours away and Grandpa Dan had surgery on his foot a few weeks ago.  It's fun to be the adults and have control over deciding when it's time to open presents!

 

 The sleeping bags were a hit and will come in handy next summer when we go camping.

 

 Sam and Anna also got color wonder paper and paints from Aunt Mary in the box of presents.

 Books, including a First Bible.

 The play tent was one of the favorite presents from Grandpa Dan and Joanne.  I don't have any pictures of them going in and out of it, but rest assured, they spent the rest of the morning playing with it.

 Anna loved her Vtech camera... and now she can be just like Mama- taking a million pictures of the same thing. :)

Anna was still napping late on Christmas Eve, so we didn't make it to the 4:30 service at church.  After deciding to attend the 7:00 pm service, we chose to open our family gifts after nap since we would be rushed to fit it in on Christmas morning.

Sam and Anna each had three gifts to open from us, just like they have had in years past.

Sam was very excited about his zoo animal puzzles- they have so much fun with the other Melissa and Doug 12 piece puzzle box we have.

I got these kid clocks on Babysteals- they show with pictures when it is time to be awake and when it is time to be asleep.  So far with using them, we've been sleeping until 8 am during winter break,  which is exactly the time I set them for- perfect!

 The wooden blocks box was played with right away.

And so was the jumper, as soon as it was put together.  This was the "big gift" this year (last year the kitchen was the big gift).

We made it to the 7:00 pm service early (unusual for us!). Sam and Anna did as well as they did last year, but they always do amazingly well during church services. We rarely take them out at all. When the service began, there were some bells rung, and Anna said immediately (and loudly) "Is that SANTA?" which was cute and the extent of their toddler chattiness. They were transfixed by the dancing light of the candles while everyone was singing Silent Night. It was magical.

Bedtime was an hour late due to church and an hour after turning out bedtime lights (so 2 hours past normal bedtime), we could still hear murmurings of "Santa..." and "Ho ho ho.." coming from Sam's room.  I would say he was excited to have Santa visit and see what was left after Santa visited our home!