Christmas Eve

We witnessed a Christmas miracle today! It snowed!!!! Normally, I don't wax sentimental about snow, but we live in Montana and who's ever sung of dreaming about a brown Christmas? We spent the morning assembling gingerbread houses and making chocolate trees. It was the perfect project for the kiddos, even if the results were less than perfect. So long as everyone had fun, I'm more than happy. Mostly, it was great to have a family activity that kept everyone interested all morning and didn't involve a screen. Love it!

During nap, I went to help my sister make sugar cookies at my parent's house. It was fun getting to talk with her for awhile, uninterrupted by three screaming boys. Once they woke up, we had our traditional appetizer dinner, along with mom's spectacular clam chowder. We watched Christmas Story as a family, Kayla read the boys Twas the Night Before Christmas, and then we went to look at a few lights. The roads were bad, so the light show was short. However, we saw some really spectacular displays, and the boys were happy.

As is tradition, we opened our family presents and made a fire before bedtime. The boys got new pajamas, and there were lots and lots of books. I also got Darreck an antique mother-of-pearl ship. At least those were the highlights. I love warm and cozy Christmas Eve's with my boys!

Darreck and I capped off the evening watching Christmas Vacation and went to bed much, much too late. Unfortunately, Jack has a slight cold, so he was up almost every hour last night. It was long, but I'm not in a position to turn down snuggle tie, even at 2 in the morning. All that was left to do was wait for Santa!