Christmas Eve at Home

Now that Jack is old enough to really start appreciating the holidays, Travis and I are struggling to establish our own family traditions.  One thing that’s really important to Travis is sleeping in our own beds Christmas Eve night and the boys waking up to Santa’s gifts at home on Christmas morning.  Neither of us wants to have Santa come on any night other than Christmas Eve even though the boys would totally welcome his gifts any morning of the year.  We started this tradition by necessity 2 years ago during Marshall’s 1^st Christmas because we were not about to travel with a 4 week old.  It’s very important to me that we are present for at least one of my family’s gatherings in Paris because I have such fond memories of spending Christmas Eve night, Christmas morning and Christmas night with my cousins and I want the boys to appreciate time with their extended family as well.  Last year we were in Paris for the Christmas Eve celebration and arrived home at midnight just before Santa’s delivery to our house.  The kids were so exhausted that they slept in the next morning.  This year we went a different route.  We stayed home Christmas Eve and drove to Paris Christmas afternoon and while I have to say I wasn’t too sure of this plan at first, I think it worked out dang near perfect.

Christmas Eve morning we woke up and opened gifts.  One thing we’ve learned is that after the boys see Santa’s surprises, they are much more interested in playing with those goods than opening more gifts, so the gift opening turns into an all day affair.  Well, we didn’t have all day Christmas day, so we thought this would give them a chance to play with round 1 before round 2 arrived a day later.

Jack in his new St. Louis Cardinals hat.  The back story to this is we watched every game of the World Series as a family.  On the night of the last game, Travis’s dad was staying with us and he and Travis both had on their Cardinals hats.  Jack said “I want to wear my Cardinals hat too!  Mommy, do I have a Cardinals hat?”  He didn’t then, but he and Marshall both do now!  They settled for John Deere hats that night, but we’re ready for this season!

Marshall gave Jack the Angry Birds game that we haven’t gotten to play much because Marshall doesn’t wait for the birds to knock over what we’ve built.

Here the boys playing with Jack’s new air hockey table that also features foosball and ping pong.

Before naps we decided we needed to bake Santa’s cookies because our after nap plans included a Christmas Eve church service and dinner at Outback Steakhouse, so we weren’t sure we were leaving much time for baking that night.  Note to self for next year – reserve time for baking cookies after naps or a day in advance because the sugar high ruins the much needed holiday nap.  I caught Jack eating the sugar sprinkles that were supposed to go on the sugar cookies.  Needless to say, he didn’t get much rest that afternoon.  I did do one thing right – I bought each boy his own cookie mix, so they didn’t fight over the bowls.

We had to wake Marshall from his nap to dress him up for church, so we didn’t leave time for pictures.  Here are the boys on the way to church.

I already mentioned our dinner plans for Christmas Eve included Outback Steakhouse.  We love Outback and we never go there, so that’s semi-special.  Honestly, I just didn’t want to spend my Christmas Eve cooking a big meal and Travis didn’t want to spend Christmas Eve night cleaning one up.  It worked out perfectly and I honestly don’t know how I would’ve squeezed in cooking time anyways.  As soon as we got home, the boys went straight to bath and bed and we got to work.  Mrs. Claus ordered the little one 40 cardboard building blocks that arrived back in October, but she and Santa never got around to putting them together until that night.  She also made the mistake of giving Mr. Claus his Apple TV that morning, so he was a bit preoccupied during the first half of assembly.  I always love stuffing their stockings and sitting things out just right.  Poor Jack was so worried about getting to bed before Santa’s arrival that he completely forgot about the cookies and reindeer food.  I took these pictures to show him that we had done it for him.

Santa came!  Now to wait for the boys to awake in the morning!

As for the first half of our tradition mission, Christmas Eve was still a bit chaotic.  We opened gifts, some of which involved assembly, then played, ate lunch, baked cookies, napped, went to church, dinner then bed.  I don’t know if next year we need to assemble everything before we wrap it or if we need to move some things to the day before.  We ended the day exhausted, but still excited about the day to come.