Christmas Eve

Looking back at Christmas Eve 2010...

The pictures are backwards (yet mostly in order) from the end of the night to the start of the evening. We went to church at Northside Christian Church in Spring and then ate dinner at Cheddars, then home for hot chocolate, playtime, caroling, opening of the Christmas Eve gift, then preparing for Santa.

Here is Eli at the end of night eating his share of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies before bedtime.

Eli and Aiden left a note and two cookies.... the milk came after the picture was taken.
Michael and Tracy and kids joined us on Christmas Eve. Michael snuggled Aiden to sleep at the end of the night. Please pardon the blurry picture, the battery to the camera was dieing.

Michael and Aiden snoozing together near the kids tree....

The kids opened some gifts. All four kiddos received their own Christmas sheets sewn from Aunt Liz as well as I had matching pajamas made for all four with their names on their hineys.

While we all sipped hot chocolate, Aiden had a bottle of milk... his favorite.

My family has wonderful Christmas traditions and I made sure we did them at our house since we were not in Magnolia. We went to church, had dinner, sang Christmas carols, drank hot chocolate, opened our gift of annual Christmas pajamas, read the Night Before Christmas, and set out cookies for Santa. My family reads the Bible as well, but the kids aren't there yet. It was hard enough getting them to sit half way through the story.

Eli and Kate were very attentive at the beginning of the story....

Halfway through, we took a break and let the kids run around.

Eli and Aiden have their own Christmas tree in the front room, so the kids played in there for a bit.

Aiden was mesmerized by his first Christmas tree.

Aiden did his "bear crawling" all over the place!

Things got a bit wild with Eli jumping off of the couch....

At the beginning of the evening (before the reading and craziness) we sang Christmas carols. Kate sat on Eli's play potty... no, it is not used or dirty. We haven't started that adventure. Someone gave it to us and we let Eli sit on it to pretend potty.... He is not ready yet.

Kate played well that night.... well, she and Eli fought, but that is normal!

Garrett enjoyed his first Christmas Eve.

Eli and Aiden opened their pajamas at the beginning of the night so they could wear them.

Aiden sang to Momma with his beautiful husky voice. He is such a precious baby. I am so glad we were blessed with him. Aiden is a wonderful addition to our family.

The house was decorated for the holidays.

I love the warmth of the house with Christmas everywhere.

Mommy and Aiden on their first Christmas Eve.

(sorry Jer... you were behind the camera all night so I have none to post of you. Thank you for capturing our moments though)

What a wonderful kick off to the days ahead.

Looking back, it was one of my most favorite Christmas'.