Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year fell on a Monday, so I started the day by going to pick up my groceries from Sam's.  My mom and sister joined me, and since Billy had the kids, we decided to stop in a volunteer run (read: minimal operating hours) thrift shop.

I found $10 worth of things, even with their half off sale! I picked up a single player game for Emily, since she has been really excited to play Uno lately, but I do have other chores that need attention. = )

We went to the four o'clock service at Journey Life.  It was a nice service, but all of my children holding open flames at the end took a toll on my stress level.

We managed to not set anything or anyone on fire, and so we had a family picture afterward.  This was the one they posted (so I'm guessing it was the best, or at least the most entertaining. lol.)  All the kids were wound up, but particularly Wiwam. obviously.

In the car we enjoyed some cookies, and when we came home they got to open their Christmas PJs.  Juliet was yawning in every single picture. = O

Once the pajamas were on, it was time for pictures.  I promised them hot chocolate, after the pictures, but they looked really cute holding the mugs.  I'm a fan of most of the pictures we took on the couch*.

And this is why we don't have hot chocolate on the couch; William.

Not sure what Emily was doing to Grace.

Juliet must have been tired, and Alice was ready for cocoa.

Apparently William said something gross, and Alice was disgusted.

"let's take a selfie!"

I did get a great shot of all 5 of them though:

And then this happened:

Once the silliness took over, I went to boil the water and Alice checked the "Santa Tracker."

We put our reindeer food:

And Santa got some sanitary cookies:

Thanks to a busy day, bedtime was pretty smooth for everyone except for Emily who was just too excited to sleep.

Billy started putting out presents before I came down, but I was able to help finish up.  And he ate all of my non-imperial cornflake cookies that were cooling on the counter! all.of.them.  punk.

This was one of those evenings that was crazy and hectic and makes me so incredibly thankful for the gift of Christmas.

later days

*It's only been a year and they all looks sooo much older than last year!