T'was the night before Christmas...

Surprisingly enough, I wasn't wrapping presents on Christmas eve. Most things were done, which for me is a huge deal. The kids and I enjoyed a quiet day, we played, made a Christmas tree pizza and watched a Christmas movie. Tanner loved this pizza.

Then the kids went down for naps and I had a chance to make the kids Christmas shirts. Love how they turned out.

After naps, our sweet neighbors came over and we exchanged gifts with them. We seriously love our neighbors.

Then we went to Nanny and Papa's for our Christmas eve festivities.

We kept it this simple and did deli sandwiches and chips.
Bailey and I after dinner- love this silly girl!

Tanner and Dad hanging out

Then we opened the calendars from my wonderful Aunt Lynnette. Every year she makes a family calendar. It's a tradition to open them together on Christmas eve.

Then came the main event. The gingerbread house smash. This year it was a gingerbread train.

Eventually all the kids got into it. Some just took longer to warm up than others.
For those who don't know our tradition, we let the kids smash our gingerbread house/train each year with toy hammers

YUM!

gingerbread in each hand....that's my girl!

After the gingerbread smash, we loaded the kids up and headed home. We still had lots of traditions to do on our own. We are trying to start doing more on our own- making our own family traditions. So after we got home, there was a knock at the door and this is what the kids found.

Love this look of surprise on the kids' faces

Tanner immediately ran outside and grabbed it.

Tanner was pretty excited.

Tanner showing me the book that was attached to the box

Kids opening the box

Tanner pulling their "urgent delivery" pajamas out

We got the kids dressed in their special Christmas pajamas and then we read the book "The Pajama Elves". It's all about these little elves that measure you while you are sleeping and make your special pajamas to wear on Christmas eve. The pajamas are made with Christmas magic and help you sleep soundly so Santa can come without waking anyone. It's such a cute story. The kids loved it.

Then we quickly gave the kids their reindeer food and we went outside to sprinkle it on our lawn.

The label read something along the lines of
"Sprinkle this outside your house tonight.
The moonlight will make it shine so bright.
As the reindeer fly and roam,
this will help guide them to your home"

Tanner sprinkling the reindeer food on the lawn.

Bailey thought it was so fun to dump it all out.

Then we came back in and found our elf, Buddy, had left us a note saying goodbye.

Then we let the kids say their goodbyes to Buddy. Yes, we let them hug him goodbye. He didn't need his magic to fly because Santa was coming to get him. Therefore, it was okay to touch him this one time.

Isn't this picture darling? 

Bye Buddy!

Bailey huggin on Buddy

Then we laid out our cookies for Santa and got ready for bed.

Tanner was pretty excited for Santa to eat the donut reindeer we had made for him.

We let the kids fall asleep in front of the tree. I remember loving sleeping in front of the tree as a child and I wanted to pass that thrill and excitement onto our kids.

Bailey was so exhausted. She didn't last long. We moved her to her bed first.

Then Tanner eventually fell asleep and we moved him into his bed too. Isn't the picture precious though?

After moving Tanner to his bed, Santa was able to come.

Here is what Santa brought for Tanner this year.

And here's Bailey's stocking from Santa

Stocking loot. I love doing stockings. I love finding the perfect little stocking stuffers, even if they don't always fit inside their actual stockings. Oh well...next year I'll try and keep it more under control.

Christmas eve was so fun. Our kids are getting so big and holidays just get to be more and more fun the older they get. I LOVE IT.

Merry Christmas!