Christmas Eve 2015

My boys were so excited about Christmas this year. I thought they were going to drive me crazy before it got here.  ha  Then it arrived and I drove myself crazy trying to make sure everything was just right for my little family.  Everything turned out great and we had a wonderful Christmas.  Here is a look at our Christmas Eve celebration.

We began the day with a snowman pancake breakfast.  I used sharpie markers to draw a snowman face on some clear plastic cups.  We filled them with milk and had "snowman juice".  The boys loved that idea and are still asking to drink out of those cups.

our Christmas Eve breakfast

After eating we got dressed and drove into town to the mall to spend the morning letting the boys play.

They were tickled when we let them rent these animal rides at the mall.  

We gave them equal amounts of coins to ride the rides or play games.  It is always a treat for them to get to do that.

After some time on the playland we enjoyed lunch at the food court.  They guys ate McDonald's and I had a Subway sandwich. 

Each year we bake a cake and have a birthday party to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  We usually do this on Christmas Eve and the cake becomes our dessert for the day.  This was our cake this year.  It is supposed to be baby Jesus in the manger but as you can see I am not the best decorator, ha.  My boys loved it so that is all that matters.

my boys with our cake

Mrs. Anne from our last team brought us this cute table cloth and some matching plates for our party. We hung a banner and some balloons to go with it.

I forgot to put the candles in the cake before I cut it.  Here are the boys before we sang and blew out the candles.

"Happy Birthday, Jesus"

Our Christmas Eve supper consisted of Little Caesar's Pizza, cake, and these red Christmas jello jigglers. 

Afterwards we went outside to shoot some fireworks. 

One of our sweet neighbors gave the boys a bag of fireworks to shoot.  Inside was also two pairs of these 3D glasses to wear.  That added a lot of fun to the evening. 

We enjoyed a visit from the Lubecks that evening also.  They stopped by and enjoyed a cup of coffee with us and a few laughs.  They also brought us some homemade cinnamon rolls and the boys a gift.

After bath time the boys got to open two gifts each.  One was their Christmas pajamas from their Memaw and the other was a small toy.  I also sat out a Christmas book that we read each year.

David and the boys reading our Christmas book.

my sweet boys in their new pajamas

It has always been my tradition to take a picture of my boys sleeping on Christmas Eve.  I also do this on the night before their birthday.   I love watching my boys sleep and the photos help remind me of how precious it is.

We did this craft on Christmas Eve.  I love doing things with my boys hands and feet.  They are only little once and I'll treasure this for ever.

Once they were asleep we got busy setting out all of their gifts.  This was the calm before the storm.

I also decorate their door each year with streamers and balloons.  It is just a little extra fun for them on Christmas morning.

It was around 11:00 before we were all done.  We were ready for bed but knew there was no way we were going to sleep just yet.  It is tradition here to shoot fireworks at midnight on Christmas Eve and the whole country lights up and it sounds like a war zone.  It is seriously the loudest noise I have ever heard.  So, we hung out and waited until midnight and then walked outside to watch the madness. Here is a short video of some of the fireworks in our street-

Our neighbors pretty much had a street party complete with speakers and they partied on until around 3:00 a.m.  Thankfully both boys slept through it all and even though we got very little sleep that night they slept well.   Christmas morning was a lot of fun and I'll share about that next.