Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day began with tons of baking.  And no meal would be complete without a Granny Caskey Caramel Pie.  I was showing Elle how to make the edges of the pie look fancy.

 

 

The day was filled with such excitement.  So much so, that Levi eventually asked me to put him to bed.  It was way past naptime so I told him I'd put him on the couch while I was cooking...he was asleep a few minutes later.  So sweet.

 

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to make all the snacky types of foods that we love and this year's menu was probably the most eclectic!  We had potstickers, homemade pretzels, cuties dipped in chocolate, edamame, mashed sweet potatoes, jalapeno poppers, egg rolls, baked tilapia and fish sticks.  Totally crazy, and oh so good.  We were all beyond stuffed after dinner!

And our yearly picture of Shawn reading to the kids.  This was year #36 to read from this exact book.

The kids and I in our jammies...we don't really do Christmas PJ's since they end up not wearing them anyway!

All is calm, all is bright?

Cookies, milk and a note from Elle.  I had good intentions of having everyone write a list to Santa but never sat them down to do it.  Elle took matters into her own hands right before bedtime and wrote Santa.  A few things she asked for, and I quote "I would like an Ipod that can only call my mom and dad, some games on it, bible, and notes for church.  I would also like paint supplies and paint also and an american doll or journey doll and a lot of surprises.  Love, Elle M"  Levi wanted blue skittles.  (this is the second year in a row that that's all he has asked for!)  I'm not sure exactly what Ava wanted and I'm not totally sure she knew either.  But that didn't stop her from giving us hourly updates for the week before Christmas letting us know how many days and/or hours were left until Christmas!  She was beyond excited!