Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve afternoon and evening was spent in Louisville. After the Christmas Eve party at Jonathan's Aunt's house, we changed the kids into their Christmas pj's and headed home. Looking back, we probably should have left Louisville earlier than we did since we had an hour car ride to get home. (You'll see why in the pictures.) There are some traditions I like to have with the kids at our house (cookies for Santa, reindeer food, hanging stockings, opening a present of a new Christmas book, reading the Real Christmas story and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas) but most of those were completely spoiled by my children being so far past bedtime. Poor things were melted down and just wanted their beds. No precious pj pictures in front of the tree this year.  Here are a few pictures of our night...

Poor boy just didn't want to open that present.

His sister didn't want to open it either. She just wanted to lay down and was begging for her bed.

Mommy somehow talked them into opening their new Christmas book.

 Hanging their stockings by the chimney with care.

Daddy read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. One of his childhood traditions.

 Adalyn didn't want any part of putting cookies out for Santa. Poor girl was just too tired and refused to look at the camera. She did tell me which chair was for Santa to sit in to eat his cookies, though.

 She did notice in the morning that Santa had eaten his cookies and drank his milk. She was pretty excited about that. 

 And this was how I was able to bribe her to do all of the above pictured things. She was so excited to put the reindeer food out that she had just made with Aunt Heather. That was her highlight of the night.

 Mommy and Cayden came outside to help with the reindeer food too!

After the kids went to sleep, I took a few pictures of our Christmas decorations all lit up at night. I love our tree! It's so much fun and I love the bright colors. My only purchase this year was the stocking holders and I think they go perfectly with the stockings! (Of course I don't have a close up pic of all of them.)

 Here is the other side of the room. The kid stuff takes away from the decor, but that's just the phase of life we're in. This is reality. Decorations and toys have to live together:)

 The kids loved the mistletoe this year. They were programmed to give kisses when we walked under it. It was so sweet.

 This is the tree in the front window. Having two trees is a lot of work to put up and take down, but I love having both of them. This one is formal and has a lot of special ornaments and is beautiful from the street. The other tree is fun and bright and so much fun for the kids!

Spoiler alert: Santa came to our house! I'll have pictures to prove it in the next post:)