Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is kind of a blur. This was the first morning where everything starting catching up to me. I went for an early morning run but ended up walking home cause I felt like I was either going to throw up or pass out. After Spencer left for work I loaded up the kids and headed to the post office. I wanted to be there when it opened to mail off Christmas packages - packages that arrived at my house just the day before (much later than expected), which I mailed with apology notes for getting there so late. After the post office I knew I didn't want to go home and have to deal with excited kids while feeling so tired, so I stopped at the girls school on our way home and I let them run and play on the playground. This was a huge treat for the kids and they were thrilled to be at their school when nobody else was. They took off their shoes, ran, climbed, played, and did things that normally aren't allowed on a school day. While they ran around burning off energy, I layed in the grass and took a nap! I was shocked at how wiped out I was. We got home in time to eat lunch and get Cal down for a nap. I'm not sure exactly what the girls did while Cal napped cause I could barely make it to my bed before falling asleep. I have a video on my phone of the girls "doctoring" me while I'm half awake. It's a good one. I must have still been asleep when Spencer got home from work. He made Italian "wedding soup" for our Christmas Eve dinner. Our home teacher stopped by while I was sleeping. Madi answered the door, accepted the present he'd brought, and said thank you. Thankfully Spencer was home when Bishop and Kathy stopped by to drop off a gift. I did force myself to get up when my primary secretary stopped by to drop some stuff off. I don't remember much of our conversation but pretty sure I did a good job at pretending I was coherent. Another friend stopped by with her kids an hour or so later. I was feeling more awake and alert by that point.

Around 4pm we headed over to Boppi and Grandpa Al's house for our Christmas Eve dinner. We got there just in time for a gorgeous sunset!

We had quite the crew for dinner - the adult table:

The "kid" table:

And the "little kid" table:

After dinner we worked on getting into costumes and ready for the Nativity. Kaitlyn and Madi made beautiful angles:

Elle and Ashley both wanted to be Mary which we were planning to do, but then Elle didn't have a baby Jesus to hold (Ashley was prepared with her special Annabelle doll) and couldn't be consoled. We all tried finding her different dolls that would suffice as Jesus, but nothing was good enough. The crying was just too much for me. I was completely annoyed that she was throwing a fit over this silly little detail. Then for some reason Calvin started crying too and was clinging to my leg and not wanting to play the shepherd which he was all dressed for. It pretty much ruined the whole Nativity for me, which is one of my favorite things about Christmas Eve. Shaun took Ashely's Annabelle doll away for a minute (totally against her will) for Elle to hold so we could get an obligatory Nativity picture. But all that leading up to this point, makes the picture that much harder for me. 

We pretty much left right after the Nativity - missing out on dessert and everything. It was after 7pm at that point though and we still had a few things to do back at home before getting our already tired kids into bed. Letters to Santa went into stockings, chocolate milk and cookies layed out, then jammies, our Dec 24th scripture, song, and story (we were really good about reading from our "25 days of Christmas" binder every night) and reading of "The Night Before Christmas" (Spencer's family tradition that has carried on in our home). The kids were excited but sleepy and quickly went to bed.

The fun was just beginning for Spencer and I though as we had much to wrap and prepare for the next day!