Christmas Eve Excitment

Christmas Eve!!! How is this day already here? I feel like the month of December just flew by. Crazy.

We started off our day by finally making our gingerbread masterpiece for the year. This year we made a train. Tucker was very happy about this development. We typically make this way earlier in the season, but like I said- this month has been crazy. 

Each kid took turns decorating a part of the train and it was so fun. 

Tanner took his icing job very seriously. Never have evergreen trees looked so amazing. 

I love these kids so dang much!

The day was full of playing and errands; cleaning and food prep. We also waited patiently for Uncle David to come over to visit. He drove over the day before and got in after the kids had gone to sleep. The kids were all dying to see him and it was very exciting when he came over.

 On Christmas eve we had everyone over for a Mexican food dinner. We grew up having Mexican food at my Aunt Ginny's house so this was a fun tradition to continue. Aaron and Stephanie joined us as well. Joseph and Julieta were over and we were only missing Sarah, Johnny and their family-(they went to Utah for the holiday). 

After a delicious dinner, we re-enacted the nativity with all the little cousins. This was pretty comical. Tanner and Bailey, however, took their roles as "Joseph" and "Mary" very seriously. We were kind of cracking up watching them. So cute. 

Oh and before we started the re-enactment, we had each of the wise men gather the most valuable thing they could find to bring to baby Jesus. Their selections were pretty awesome.

Emmett brought a princess carriage, Black brought a princess jewelry box and a couple of transformers and Tucker brought a shoelace "snake".

They were all very proud of their selections and it was so funny to watch them all present their gifts.

I always love reading Luke 2 and it's become more and more entertaining as the kids get older.

After our nativity, Stephanie and Aaron took their boys home to finish their preparation and all their family traditions.

Next up for us was our traditional gingerbread smash.
These kids didn't hold back, despite the fact that we had just finished decorating it that morning. They happily demolished and devoured it together.

Then Joseph and Julieta took their boys home and we finished the last of Christmas Eve traditions.

We opened our package from the pajama elves and the kids got their Christmas pjs.

After getting their pj's on, I read them the book. This is another of my favorite traditions. Pretty cute story and the kids love it!

Then we sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn. 

And said goodbye to our elves. This year our elves were pretty quiet. We did the "light the world" challenge and the elves helped us stayed focused. It was so nice. And despite me not making elaborate setups each night for them. the kids still loved finding their elves each morning and seeing what the challenge was. They loved sharing the light of Christ and serving those around us. We will definitely be keeping our elf visits Christ focused.  

Tucker gave his reindeer a crazy hug and then attempted to feed him some of the carrots we laid out for Santa's reindeer. So cute. 

Then it was hugs and kisses for everyone and the kids were off to bed. They went happily and fell right asleep. 

Then we watched a Christmas movie and finished with our Christmas Eve preparations.

I was so excited for the next morning that it was hard to sleep. Stay tuned.