Christmas Eve Traditions

I love Christmas Eve day. Being with family, eating good food, anticipating the next day's excitement, enjoying our family traditions and celebrating our savior! So many wonderful things happening, and today was no exception. We even woke up to snow! Of course, none of it stuck, but it was exciting none-the-less.

Some of our Christmas Eve traditions include:

* Competing to be the first to say "Christmas Eve Gift" to every member of the family.

* Making a birthday cake for Jesus.

* Attending the Christmas Eve service at our church.

* Hosting a fajita dinner for our family.

* Getting a new pair of Pajamas to wear to bed and Christmas morning.

* Another unique thing that Bryan and I do, is that we write a little note to each other every day and put it in each other's stocking. On Christmas Eve we pull them out and read them to each other, so we have 24 sweet messages to each other for the month. It's always a special time that we get to have after we get everything ready for Christmas morning!

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I am so glad I am spending it with my wonderful family. I have definitely taken way too many photos today, and have a ton to share with you! Enjoy! :)

Playing with the super cool, Uncle Jeff!

About to bake a birthday cake.

So proud!

He always does a good job of licking the beaters!

This was one of Kade's big presents that he got today. We went ahead and set it up, because it would take up too much room in the living room, and knew we wouldn't be able to sneak it into his room while he was sleeping. Too much rearranging to do! It is a train table that Bryan and a friend, Stephen, built to fit on top of his futon. The kids can sit on it and play, and they are both super excited! (Those are our good friends, Kasey and Adrian. We got to have a nice visit this afternoon as they were visiting family here in San Angelo.)

Kade is excited to have a place to play his trains, and Mommy is excited about getting the trains off the floor and the storage space underneath.

Dressed up for the Christmas Eve service.

Being sweet to each other!

4 Generations

The Fam!

Spinning with Unlce Jeff

I never get tired of seeing MK with her Great Grandmother (and namesake).

Enjoying those yummy fajitas!

Time to eat Kade's cake. It was very yummy.

MK cleaned her plate!

Opening their jammies.

Christmas Eve Jammies!

They opened their gifts from their grandparents and great-grandparents tonight. Tomorrow morning will be the ones from us and Santa.

A new baby!

This was Kade's favorite gift tonight. He was so excited to be an engineer/conductor and we all got to board the Polar Express.

When Bryan was putting Kade down for bed, he told him the Christmas story again and then talked about how Jesus came to die for our sins. When Bryan asked him if he remembered what sins were, Kade answered, "Yes. They are the bad things we do, like when I am mean or lie." After that he thought real hard and then said, "Daddy, why are we sometimes mean and do bad things?" Bryan then explained to him about human nature and how it was just something inside of us. It is so precious to me to see Kade starting to grasp things. I long for the day that he understand completely. I am so thankful for my precious family, for traditions, for memories made. Every day is special with my loved ones. I hope that everyone is having a blessed night too. Merry Christmas Y'all!!