Christmas Eve 2014

 Dear Kids,

Christmas Eve finally came. The last ornaments on our two Advent calendars were hung. The presents were all wrapped and under the tree. It was super exciting! First thing that morning we decided to do our breakfast picnic by the Christmas tree since we hadn't done that yet this year.
Lulu, you helped me cook some muffins and the we went down for our little feast:

Chocolate milk:

 Mmmm, muffins:

 Breakfast picnics are pretty fun!:

While Dad was at work we also decorated Grammie's wrapped gift, read stories, had a Christmas concert in the living room, and watched some of the movies we checked out from the library. You guys were watching Inspector Gadget cartoon when Dad came home a little early.
We started our Grinch party at dinner time.
Dad made up some yummy who has and then carved the roast beast:

 Pluto could smell that meat and was really hoping he would be invited to the feast:

 Lulu, you made a cute menu and put it on the table:

 Pluto, you were a good doggie, just resting over by the sink while we ate:

 After dinner we had Grinch punch and then went downstairs to watch our Christmas Even tradition movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! After the movie we opened our new jammies from Grammie!:

 Baby, you were doing a great job walking!:

 Then before baths it was time for some Who Pudding. Lulu, you really wanted to use our fancy dishes since it was a special occasion:

  After baths we took our family Christmas Jammie pictures.

 Here's a normal one:

 Then a few silly ones:

 Then another attempt at a normal one:

 and one last one with our Christmas friends in the picture.  I told you guys that you could finally hold Freddie on Christmas Eve, because even though he would probably lose his magic, Santa could just pick him up and take him back to the North Pole with him when he was at our house that night. Lulu, your eyes almost popped out of your head when I picked Freddie up off the mantle. Then you guys all giggled and giggled as you each held him and gave him a little kiss. Hammer, you were excited to hold him for the picture:

Dad then read us the Christmas story from Luke 2, and you guys got to use the brand new finger puppets that I made this year:

 Here they are again:

 After we were done saying goodbye to Freddie we put him here to wait for Santa:

 Lulu, you were a little sad that it was Freddie's last night with us:

 After we brushed teeth and just before bed, we checked on the computer to see where Santa was at that moment. He was in the Caribbean still. Then we watched a silly little video where one of Santa's reindeer got tired from pulling the sleigh and so Santa put two elves in his spot. You three laughed and laughed at that video. Then it was off to bed finally:

We remembered to put our Candy house and some cookies and milk out for Santa at the last minute. Phew!
I love Christmas Eve. I think it's just as exciting as the real deal the next day and I loved doing our traditions and starting a few new ones with you. Traditions are what make Christmas Eve even more special.
Love you all,
Mom