Christmas Eve....

Christmas Eve is the hardest thing to explain to the girls - you say it's Christmas and they go bonkers!!! Constantly asking when Santa is coming, and can we open presents? I was able to past some of the time tracking down Santa on the internet - the girls loved it!! We also played games on the site, which was fun!

I have the girls give each other Christmas presents, and since the presents had been sitting under their purple tree wrapped with Spongebob Christmas paper, Brian and I decided this gift would be good to have them unwrap on Christmas Eve. They each received Barbie dolls, one a Doctor (pediatrician) and the other a Chef w/her own television show! Marissa & Sierra kept busy all day playing with their dolls not asking about Santa or if they could open more presents...until about 4pm, when we said it was time to decorate Santa's cookies! Brian had made various cookies in memory of his Grandma Shirlee, using her recipes. We decided to decorate the Gingerbread cookies w/homemade colored icing! We also left Santa a tall glass of milk!! We realized the next morning that we forgot to leave carrots for the reindeer - hopefully they weren't' too bummed out!

Afterwards we headed over Brian's Grandpa Joe's house for his family Christmas celebration. We had a blast, as always, but definitely had a hard time coping with the lost of Shirlee. I think that her spirit was with us that evening and hopefully she was proud of our efforts to keep her memory alive! Each family member brought their "Shirlee" cookies for tasting. Aunt Teri made Shirlee's famous macaroni salad, which is one of my favorites!! Grandpa Joe gave Marissa & Sierra Snow White toys, a cleaning and ironing set - which they LOVED! We also enjoyed a white elephant game w/the entire family - one of which I hope remains a tradition allowing us all to participate!

The night has yet to end....next up my parents house for our Christmas Eve celebration!! Prior to our children we would all party it up eating yummy appetizers and drink wine until about 4am. As the years have gone by the evening goes a little faster - the wine is still served but we tend to keep our glasses full for while longer and we were all done at about 1am. We usually begin the night with our Gag Gifts to each adult, names picked at Thanksgiving time. The stockings and then attack the Christmas Tree!! The kids were exhausted and the gifts overwheled the house - WOW how blessed we all are!!! I had more fun watching the kids than wasting time with the camera, but I did manage to take a photo of the girls two favorite gifts, Marissa w/her Princess Scooter and Sierra w/her Strawberry Shortcake Doll!!