Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve didn't hold a lot of plans for us. To be honest I was a little nervous about anyone getting bored but that worry ended up being very displaced. We played in the snow and went sledding

After we we frozy we came inside for hot chocolate, some lunch, and to decorate our gingerbread house. The kids did a great job

We realized while making pizza that we still hadn't taken the tramp down:( I finished the pizza while Matt headed out to see what was going on. After he brushed off the top layer of snow he found a skating rink! And after taking a crow bar to it we found 6 inches of ice and an additional 2 inches of snow! Matt broke it into pieces and then it took both of us to lift it off the tramp. The tramp seemed fine until Matt slipped and put a hole in the mat with his crow bar so we will see if we can patch that but for now its safer than it was. Then we ate pizza and then the girls were super excited to open their Christmas Eve gift aka pjs. We have learned over the years to label the box so we aren't searching thru all the gifts to find them. We also decided to wrap them in a big box all together and that was an awesome idea.

They all took turns helping to unwrap it...I love the relationship the girls have with each other

 Each of the girls got 2 sets of pjs and a set of slippers

 Em was more interested in the box. It was just the right size for her

 Hallie got frozen slippers, Gracie Troll slippers, and Em got Minnie Mouse slippers

 Then they put the finishing touches on their gingerbread house before heading to the tub

 After the tub the girls decided they wanted their hair in curlers(probably so they could stay up later) but I was fine with it since it would make it super quick to get the girls ready for church 

 And then just for fun we let the kids each pick one present to open since we knew Christmas morning was going to be a little crazy. Gracie was more than thrilled with her Frozen playdough and Hallie opened some clip on earrings

 After we got the kids to bed it was Santa time. I build Hallie and Em's stuff while Matt built Gracie's castle. It always takes longer than we think. We got done about midnight and finally settled in about 1...at this moment we were really glad our kids aren't early risers

I will admit it Christmas Eve was different than what I anticipated but it ended up better than I could have imagined. Growing up I celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas surrounded by family and I wanted that for our kids but with my family so far away and Matt's family having no interest in that it hasn't worked out that way. But Matt and I are making our own traditions and trying to raise our girls that some day they will have strong family ties and want to spend time with all of us as a family like I grew up doing.