Christmas Eve 2013

Finally after a long hiatus that I can only blame on HBO's excellent TV show, The Newsroom, (if you haven't seen it, go watch it, but if you don't like it, don't tell me about it), we are back! As always after a long break, this one's dedicated to Pop-pop & Gramby. Enjoy!

By Christmas Eve our house was ready for the impending insanity! Look at all those presents under the Christmas tree. Wrap central has been hopping.

Meg-a-tron-trick-a-doo in her star PJ's.

After breakfast we headed over to Lacy to run off some excess energy. The weather was decidedly more seasonal than it had been over the weekend with crisp temperatures and lots of wind. Look at that winter sky!

Clara had some fun playing soccer for a bit.

Then we moved down to the playground equipment. Time for the "spinny things".

After playing we headed home for lunch and nap time which was especially crucial on this day because of our extensive plans for the evening. We attended church for the first time as a family with some of our friends from Clara's school and then had Christmas Eve dinner with other long time friends. It was almost too bad it was Christmas Eve because everyone was getting along so well after dinner that we hated to leave, but we knew the night had to come to an end because we still had miles to go before sleep!

After all of our evening's festivities we returned home and let the kids open one present each. Shocker of shockers... Christmas PJ's! Meghan absolutely loved her nightgown. She was so excited to be just like Clara.

Jack shows off his sweet "T'was the Night Before Christmas" PJ's. (On a sad note his adorable reindeer socks are no longer a pair, as one of them fell victim to Sydney this past weekend - thankfully working its way threw her digestive tract and out the other side).

Christmas Eve Dance Party

PJ Fashion Show

And now after all that fun, it was time to actually get the kids to settle down for bed with "T'was the Night Before Christmas", what else?

And finally before other duties commenced I was busy baking Christmas breakfast, a New York-Style Crumb Cake a la Foster's Market.

Stay tuned to see if Santa Claus visited!