Christmas Eve

We decided to spend the holiday at our home with our own little family this year. While we missed being part of the usual traditions with our families in Utah, it was nice to have some time at home to relax and unwind together after the busyness of December. Trent was gone much of the month travelling to interviews and when he was home he was preparing for his board exam. Once he completed his exam and Christmas break rolled around it was such a relief for all of us. 

Christmas Eve morning the kids got to open their Christmas Eve pajamas.

Nathan was very pleased with his tool footy pajamas.

And Heidi was tickled with her pink striped pajamas.

We had such a fun visitor at our house during December. Santa sent the children an elf straight from the North Pole via Express Mail. He gave the kids the assignment to name him and they quickly came up with "Mitten", which we all thought suited him perfectly. Mitten watched over them each day and then returned to the North Pole each night to report on our naughty or nice status. Each morning we'd find him in a new spot. He was relaxing in the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. He hitched a ride back to the North Pole that night went Santa came by. 

We were thrilled that the Harmon's joined us for Christmas Eve dinner and festivities. It was so nice to have family near enough to make some memories together. Oh, how we will miss that in a few months!

We had a yummy turkey dinner with all the fixins and somehow made enough food for at least twice the amount of people who were at our table. It is hard to make a nice dinner on a very small scale! 

I have decided I am a very sentimental person because I just loved setting my table with my Grandma's old gravy boat that I recently inherited. And in the bowl you can catch a glimpse of the delicious bisque that Monica brought. So yummy!

Heidi and I sure enjoyed making the place cards for everyone.

Christmas Eve wouldn't be complete without the telling of the Christmas story and acting out of the nativity.

Heidi really gets into her role as Mary:

I believe Oakley was our shepherd or wiseman (or maybe both!) and Nathan was Joseph as well as a star when needed. We were a little short-handed on cast members!

Nathan being the star above Bethlehem:

Such a cute group:

Somehow I was the only adult with an acting part. I took my job as an angel pretty seriously.

Matt provided lovely background music:

After we enjoyed the evening together the Harmon's packed up and headed back to the other side of town. We read some stories as a family and then made sure to leave the reindeer food in the front yard and the cookies and milk inside.  We were all pretty sure that Santa was close and the kids were SO excited for the next morning.