Christmas Eve 2010

So, I haven't blogged because I've been busy. But, also because I'm stubborn and could not get a Christmas Eve photo to load on Blogger. And, hello! Can't blog February without blogging Christmas Eve.

Today, I realized that the reason my photo wasn't loading was because it is a video.

(Sorry, Blogger, for the angry e-mail. My bad!)

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We had such a wonderful Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the year: the anticipation, the excitement, our fun family traditions, AND D.I. closes at 3:00, so Mike gets off in time to celebrate with us!

We decided to start a new tradition this year for our Christmas Eve dinner. I really try to keep Christmas Eve focused on Christ, and I saw this fun idea on a blog. We had "Chicken a la King" (which translates to "chicken for the king" in French) in bread crowns, to represent the Savior being our king. Grace rolled out and put the bread squares in the muffin tins to bake (she's a fabulous chef!), and I made dinner while Mike, Adam, and Josh left on some last-minute errands.

When they got back, we had dinner. It was yummy and festive!


After dinner we opened our traditional Christmas Eve pajamas, and began our party!


We played Christmas BINGO, doughnut on a string, and a "name that Christmas song" humming game.



Afterward, we settled down and acted out the nativity, while Mike read Luke 2. My super-fabulous nativity costumes were left in the Primary room by mistake, so we improvised. And Josh refused to play a sheep. He was more interested in ripping apart the hay in Jesus' manger. So, I just pretended that he was a naughty goat that (I'm sure) made an appearance at the real nativity, and we pressed onward with our story.

Don't Mary and Joseph look just thrilled? These moments warm a mommy's heart, I tell ya!

Because I'm a super fantastic mommy, I made homemade cookies for Santa. Not. Instead, we raided all of the goodies that Mike's associates gave him at work: Santa was given macadamia nut chocolates from Samoa, a cookie from the Philippines, and a powdered doughnut from Hostess baked goods.

We're sophisticated like that.

We then hung our ice wreath for the reindeer on the door, and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before hurrying off to bed.

Guess what? I totally have an un-blurry photo of our ice wreath on my camera. And I'd rather take the time to write a caption about it than load it onto the computer.

It was such a fun night! I LOVE Christmas Eve! It was a great one! I love being able to continue traditions AND make new traditions with my 4 favorite people and get to celebrate the birth of our Savior. What a special night!