Christmas Eve

CHRISTMAS EVE AT CHURCH

We finally got to perform the amazing Christmas songs we have been slaving over for the past few months.  They were some REALLY hard songs, but we did them!  They even sounded pretty good I think!  I was so proud of us.  It's been a lot of fun to be in the ward choir lately.  It's so big and so much fun!  I loved singing on Sunday.  Church was only 70 minutes so we headed home.  We bummed around for most of the afternoon.  Which was nice.  Saying goodbye to Nate when he had to leave for work was not nice though.  Then we scurried off to Nate's work to talk with Santa as he flies through the air.  That was pretty fun as usual.  Charity went first.  He asked her about her play, driving, and Walker crushing :).  Then she asked for a microphone.  Kelly next.  He talked to her about Lacrosse and the Sevies and then reminded her to work hard in school to get good grades.  Then she asked for a yellow cell phone case.  Random.  Bradley got to boast about his basketball skills, talked about his crush on a certain someone who shall remain nameless.  Then he asked for a fish trap.  Random again.  Luke got on and talked about being the wolf in his play.  Then he was thanked for being so awesome with Molly, and asked if he still likes chips :).  He asked to be surprised this year.  As usual.  With Noah Santa asked how he liked playing Mrs. Claus in his class play.  Also he was encouraged to keep up with his magic skills.  Then Noah asked for a drone.  Erika got to talk about her awesome basketball skills, her baptism, and her friend Kate.  Then she asked to be surprised as well.  Jack didn't want to talk, but Santa tried to talk to him about what he was learning in Kindergarten.  He asked for a dragon.  Molly actually talked to Santa this year, which was super cute.  She just answered uh-huh a lot, and then asked for a bear ("a beer") which was adorable!!  We all loved it.  It was a lot of fun this year.  The kids enjoyed it.  We got to go see Nate's area and some of his friends, and then we hurried out of there so that Nate could get back to work!  We slowly made our way up to Grandpa's and realized we'd forgotten the camera so we got that and came back.  We love the hanging out at Grandpa's house tradition every year.  It's very much anticipated!  We all ate snacks and appetizers and then Steve finally showed up so we could open gifts :).  Tradition I guess.  Everyone loved their gifts!  Especially me :).  While we were there the snow was falling!  It was insane how much snow we got while we were there!  The roads were completely covered.  Even the freeway.  Apparently, nobody likes working on Christmas Eve even the snow plows.  But we thankfully made it home okay.  

Without Uncle Brent and Nate there, we all got lots of shrimp :).

These two were in the mood to pose for pictures with Olaf :).  

I need to find the one of me like this when I was little- pretty much exactly the same!!

Grandpa got a kick out of how Molly read the card before she tore open the gift.  She really looked like she was reading it!!  So cute.

We opened our pajamas just minutes before Nate got home.  The cheers when he walked in that door.... you would think they'd seen Santa Claus!  It was so cute!  I love that they love him so much and missed having him there.  They are so cute and giddy when they open their jammies.  I love hearing their positive attitudes about everything they got all through the Christmas traditions.  Makes me love them even more.  We said goodnight and went to bed without even putting out cookies or carrots!!  Something happened to us this year!!  We haven't done almost any of our traditions this year!!  It's been so weird and also so relaxing at the same time.  I'm not sure when we would have done any of it- there just wasn't time, but I hope this isn't a new pattern we're starting and that we can just pick up and do them all next year.  I hope it doesn't have anything to do with the slight depression I've been in lately.  I need to snap out of it, but I feel like I'm handling it okay until I think about this possibility.  Who knows.  Anyway.  Christmas still came and we still had a blast so I think we're good :).