Christmas Eve.....

"CHRISTMAS EVE"

We spent Christmas Eve like we do every year.......
The boys spent the morning getting the sleigh down the driveway for Santa.
Putting out the luminaries, and just getting the house ready for Santa.
Surprisingly this year, I was entirely ready for Christmas
and avoided the panicked mood that I usually find myself
in on Christmas Eve.

We then met the rest of the family at Ihop for a late lunch,
which actually should have been called a late breakfast because that
is what everyone ordered. Breakfast Food.
We then headed off to the movies and saw the movie
Arthur Christmas!
Very good movie to see on Christmas Eve.
Kind of made you feel the Christmas spirit which has been
a little hard this year due to the lack of snow.....

After the movie we then headed to our house
where we had lots of food, including popcorn from the new popcorn popper.
Noah has always wanted to have one of these,
and Bridger loves watching it pop!

When Summer was a baby my mom sent us stockings.
Through the years we have been adding to them.
We started out with 3 and now have 14!!

I am running out of places to put them.
Thanks to my mom for always getting them for us!
Hopefully the lady who makes them never dies!

The kids love these stockings because they can really stretch
and Santa can really stuff them full of goodies!

The best part of the evening is the kids exchanging presents.
Names are drawn at Thanksgiving,
and it is always fun to see what they give each other.
This year it was fun to add Rachel and Matt to the bunch
just to add a little more variety.

Bridger got a cool fire truck. Dakota got a Dr. Dreadful Lab
so he can make all kinds of gross food!
Scott got a Cabellas gift card and Jerky from Bobby.
Summer got some throw pillows from Daniel.

Summer gave Noah a very cool Dino Lego which he loved!!!!
Notice his very, very cool Jimmer pajamas!
I love how Jimmer is the "i"!

Autumn gave Hunter a movie and a case of his Favorite
Hi Chew Grape flavored candy.
He loves this candy so much he has asked Santa to fill his
whole stocking with it..........

Matt gave Daniel a new Basketball.
Autumn won the award for the night
for the best Wrap job on that basketball!
(Daniel spent the whole night out on the sport court playing basketball.
Santa was getting very impatient waiting for him to come in and go to bed.
Midnight is a little too late to be out playing.)

Rachel gave Mckenzie a very cute purse and stationary,
for all of those letters she is going to be writing us from Hawaii....

McKenzie had Matt and got him a Star Wars puzzle, (he likes puzzles)
Star Wars shirt and a sweatshirt.
Scott gave Autumn a new scarf and a gift card to her
favorite "California Pizza Kitchen"!

Noah gave Bobby "Kung Fu Panda" His favorite movie
and a very, very large Beef Stick! Another of his favorites.
Hunter gave Rachel a Magnet board for their new house.

Another tradition that we have,
that has become many families Christmas Eve traditions
is having a Santa at the bottom of our driveway.
We have done this for about 12 years now
and I dont think we can ever stop because I have had so many people tell me
that they bring their families up to our house every Christmas Eve
to see our Christmas lights and let their children have one last chat
with Santa before Christmas.

Several of the cars waiting in line to talk to Santa.
Sometimes there will be like 30 or more cars lined up down the road.
It is a constant stream of cars.
I gave Santa over 600 Candy Canes to hand out this year and he
handed them all out.

Aspen's star above the guest house.
If you go to the cemetery and stand at her grave and look
up at the mountain you can see her star.

Christmas Eve is always fun with the whole family together!
Kind of organized CHAOS!!