Our Christmas Eve

 Roger got off of work early on Christmas Eve and we started celebrating right away.  We had a nice dinner (and by nice I mean no one was arguing.  The menu was cheese and crackers and other finger foods.) Pandora played our favorite songs while we had some fun.

I don't know what this game is called but to play you need a present (that has been wrapped in multiple layers of wrapping paper), 2 dice, a hat, a scarf, and mittens (or oven mitts) (or if you are like us and have neither of those, a pair of socks will do).  You pass the dice around the table, each person taking a turn to roll.  If you roll doubles you get to (QUICKLY!) put on the hat, scarf, and mittens and try to open the present. It was insanely funny to watch.  I went through an entire roll of tape wrapping the box.  It was hard to open.  :)

When they finally got all of the layers off, they found their Christmas Eve pj's inside.

Everyone got their new pj's on (Roger and I too!) and sat down to a nice cup of hot cocoa.

Well, Keturah didn't get hot cocoa... but she certainly wasn't left out.  :)

After a Christmas movie and reading about the birth of Jesus, we sent the kids to bed.

The boys slept on air mattresses in the girls room.  They needed some accountability... too much temptation to sneak a peak of the Christmas tree.  I think that plan backfired at about 3 am... when all of the kids woke up.  

 At 5:00am we started thinking that our plan of a 6:00am wake up call was needing an adjustment.  The kids were excited and LOUD.  So we woke up Keturah and headed to the living room...

to be continued...