Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is probably my favorite day of the year.  The anticipation for Christmas day is almost better than actual Christmas for me.  We have a couple traditions and we're trying to figure out which ones will end up sticking.  In the morning, we always have the kids open a joint gift that is always a board game.  Then we spend a couple hours playing games.  They got Guess Who this year.  Sadly, I think Reed is just barely too young for this game (and Taryn has no clue), so we only played a couple times.  Plus I got the game at D.I. and didn't notice that a few pieces of the game were missing.  Whoops.  Luckily, we had 2 new games that we got from other family to play that were super fun.  We are trying to figure out our dinner tradition.  Growing up, we always ordered pizza.  But since my dad loved that, we got pizza for my dad's Christmas.  We decided to make calzones, which was fun.  The kids aren't too adventurous when it comes to toppings, so "just sauce" for Reed and only pepperoni for Taryn wasn't super exciting.  

 A special Christmas Eve breakfast.  I can't believe how excited they got about this.  Apparently I need to do this more often = new tradition!

 We read the story of Jesus' birth in Luke 2 and had the kids dress up.  A real "baby Jesus" isn't as cooperative as a doll.....

 Sadly, Taryn got a pretty high fever and ended up falling asleep on Kevin...which he didn't mind.

 So Reed and I went sledding/slipping on the driveway that had iced over.

 After Taryn got drugged up, she was much happier and ready to pick out cookies for Santa.

 Christmas PJs (hasn't been a tradition, but they do look pretty dang cute!)

 (I always dress up as an elf on Christmas Eve, but I think I need to tweek this tradition and wear it another day....)

Reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

 (We also drove around and looked at lights-my mom joined us.  *Always have treat bags for each kid.  Makes the experience so much more enjoyable when they are not begging to go home after 5 minutes).