Fun Filled Christmas Eve

Last night Amber and I let the kids all sleep out under the Christmas Tree in order to usher in Christmas Eve. Jace opted to sleep in his crib, however :). We had pretty much every inch of space occupied by a sleeping body. Amber slept on the sofa and I crashed next to Alayna. The night went fairly well despite the sleeping furnishings available in the living room.

I remember as a kid, Dad telling us how he liked to lay under the Christmas tree and look at all the lights. I used to do that too. I remember laying there closing my eyes slowly to watch the lights change into shining star-like orbs - what a fun, peaceful feeling it was, too! I think the kids were able to do the same thing last night as they lay by the tree slowly falling to sleep.

We had a great Christmas Eve. Amber and I spent the early afternoon taking snapshots of the kids and editing the prints to look half decent in a 10x13 frame. With a little creativity, we narrowed the 200 some odd shots into five awesome portraits. It is always a difficult thing to get these young-uns to hold still long enough and pose with a natural smile to capture their youth for eternity. After some sweat and tears, we finally can saw we accomplished the task.

We set the computer up to Google Earth and Norad Santa to track Mr. Kringle's progress around the globe. The kids would run the computer every few minutes to check up on the magical trip (I have to admit, I was right with them too).


The evening started with a very fancy and delicious meal prepared by Amber with place settings arranged by Aliece (of course!). We were living a bit on the edge tonight and gave the kids the fancy champagne style glasses for dinner. Not a single spill ocurred! Wow!

Music and scripture were the concluding portion of our evening as we sang songs around the piano (with accompanists: Amber, John Jr., and Aylee) and watched the "Joy to the World" DVD put on by the Church.

The kids then eagerly rushed to bed as the internet reported Santa's arrival into the Eastern part of North America. Aliece was very concerned that we all would not be asleep in time for Santa's arrival!

Amber and I have wrapped up our remaining presents - there are not too many as we have decided to cut down on gifts this year - all around the board. We're hoping to focus the season more on the Savior as our Christmas gift. Hopefully it turns out OK. We're going to cross our fingers that our two gifts per child limit will be well received.

Well, I am going to get to bed so that Santa doesn't see me up and skip over the house - that would not bide well with the children!