Christmas Eve Fun

Christmas Eve was full of fun for our family. Reighlyn, Kairington, and I started out the morning around 6:30 while the boys slept. We got up and made jello for jello salad we would be having later. Then we put cinnamon rolls in the oven. While those cooked, Reighlyn helped mom bring all of the presents up from the basement to put under the tree. We opted to not put the presents under the tree any sooner, since both Reighlyn and Keegan open any present they see. Later that day, the Gleisbergs came over for our annual Christmas Eve dinner together. Usually it is done at night and over candle light, but this year we had a lunch because Jonathan had to work from 2-10. Therefore we didn't have candle light since it was in the middle of the day, but that's ok because last year the girls all cried when we turned off the lights and the candles almost got knocked over. So we will probably stick with none candle light dinners for a couple of years, until we know we can get through a dinner without crying and starting a fire. Then we opened gifts that the two families got each other. Amazingly all the girls got dress-up shoes and dress-up skirts, Aiden got soft blocks, and Keegan got cars. Kairington was sleeping so she didn't open anything. Jonathan and Mike gave each other movies.
Our next fun adventure was a first for our family. Mike and I decided to start a tradition of taking our family to a movie on Christmas Eve. So we loaded up our very excited 3 year old, our very tired 2 year old (no nap!) and our screaming 7 week old up and headed to a 3 0'clock showing of "The Princess and The Frog". It actually went great for a while....Kairington slept the whole time after screaming the whole way there, Reighlyn loved the show but was a little concerned about all of the people behind us watching the movie. She actually thought that anyone that had to little girls were Addison and Kileigh. Keegan did great until the popcorn and m&m's were gone, then he decided he was sick of sitting and watching a movie, so Mike ended up standing up by the door the rest of the movie with him. But I would say all in all, it went pretty good. Some good tips we learned though were, take the baby car seat in with you so you don't have to hold the baby the whole time, bring more food, and don't bring a 2 year old without a nap!
Our last adventure of the day was opening our matching p.j.'s that I made for the family for the first time and making cookies for Santa. Thankfully the p.j.'s fit everyone ok and we got some cute pictures together in them. Making cookies was fun to do as a family...even though some of the cookies turned out looking quite funny.... they were made with love and I am sure Santa loved them anyways! Reighlyn helped dad leave 3 cookies and a glass a milk out for Santa before heading to bed. Mike decided to eat 2 1/2 of the cookies and drink the milk around 8:30 so he wouldn't forget....well Reighlyn decided to wake up at 9 and check to see if Santa had been there yet and so was shocked when the cookies and milk were gone, but there were no presents yet and mom and dad were still awake. So thinking on our feet we had to tell her Santa came and checked to see if she was sleeping and ate the cookies and would be back later to see if she was still sleeping and if she was then he would leave the presents....Good thing she is only 3 and she was ok with that answer. Needless to say Santa learned no eating cookies until right before bed or early in the morning before everyone else wakes up!