Christmas Eve 2019

We began Christmas Eve morning with our traditional snowman pancakes.  I make these every year and the boys look forward to them.

Cruz on Christmas Eve morning

Later that morning we spent some time walking around Antigua and had lunch at one of our favorite places- La Pasta Nostra.  It is a local Italian restaurant and we love it.   We sat outside in the open patio and had a great meal.

My Christmas Eve lunch.  

After lunch we visited another favorite place for ice cream.  The boys chose lemon pie flavor this time.

We made a quick stop by the grocery store to pick up a few last minute items and the boys bought more fireworks while there. 

We spent a lot of time on Christmas Eve playing Skip Bo.  We have played almost every day of our Christmas break so far. 

 

For supper we had pizza, popcorn, and these jello jigglers.

We also enjoyed our traditional "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake.  The heart is to remind us of God's great love sending his Son Jesus into the world (John 3:16).

While eating we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas".  It is a Christmas Eve tradition for us.

Next it was time for fireworks.  They had been waiting all day to shoot them.

 

We came in for hot chocolate and a few more rounds of cards.  Then it was off to shower.  I always get the boys matching pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve.  They get to open them before bed.

me and my sleepy boys on Christmas Eve

We told them they could stay up as late as they wanted thinking they might make it until the midnight fireworks, but they didn't.  They fell asleep around 11:00. 

 

Once they were asleep I got busy putting out their gifts.  For a big surprise gift they were getting I planned a scavenger hunt.  That meant I was running all over the house hiding clues for them to find the next morning.  It was fun and I was soo excited about them finding out what it was.

 A note Cruz put on our tree.

Lastly, we ended the night with fireworks.  At midnight on Christmas Eve the whole country shoots fireworks.  It sounds like a war zone it is so loud!  We love this tradition and stay up for it every year.  The boys did not make it this year but we look forward to this being a part of their Christmas Eve tradition in years to come.

It was then off to bed because there was no doubt that our boys would be up before the sun.  I'll share about Christmas Day next.