Christmas Eve

This month we've tried hard to think about the reason for the season. In an effort to focus on Christ, we set up a manger and encouraged the kids to do nice things for each other to "make Jesus happy". When they did something nice, they could put a "straw" in the manger. It was our hope to make the manger soft for the night when Jesus was born. I was impressed at their efforts. There was a lot of straw in the manger for this night. I also encouraged the kids to think about what they were going to give Christ for Christmas. We wrote our gift and sealed it in this tin. Next year we'll open it up and see how we did on our goal.

On Christmas eve it's our tradition to go out to eat as a family. Since being in Vegas we usually go to the buffet at the Sunset Station. That way everyone gets something they like to eat and I don't have to cook. Then we drive around to look at Christmas lights (and sometimes fight in the car but this year they did good). Then we head home for Christmas pj's, Charlie Brown Christmas, drinking hot chocolate, tracking Santa on Norad (Mike did this with Cord all day with a new ap on his phone). We also watched Luke II and took a moment to think about the birth of Christ. After setting out the cookies and milk for Santa the kids head to bed. Chelsea is my wrapper helper after the kids are in bed (thank goodness). The boys had a sleepover in the playroom upstairs.




This is what the front room looked like when I went to bed. I was super excited to see the kids in the morning and see their reactions. Cord was at a really fun age this Christmas. He got super excited about Santa and tried so hard to be on the "nice list". I really could use this idea to my advantage. "Santa's watching ;)".