Christmas Eve: Fondue + Pajamas

We finished up the evening with yummy chocolate fondue and then the kids got to open new pajamas. They were all so excited and anxious for Christmas morning and were very eager to get to bed. Ben read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then the kids set out cookies and a note for Santa. They also sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn. Ben and I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" after all the kids were in bed, our Christmas Eve tradition.

Christmas Eve: Dinner + Nativity

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner when we got home from the zoo. Amelia had fun setting a fancy table and Oliver was excited about the nativity jello. After dinner we acted out the nativity and it was a lot of chaos as usual. Simon just wanted to hit people and things with his shepherd's staff and he and Oliver spent a lot of time fighting over the manger and the baby Jesus which frustrated Elsa. We did have some nice moments when we were singing Christmas songs and Elsa played some Christmas songs she had learned on the piano. We also put the baby Jesus in our "giving manger" which we had been filling with straw all month long after doing nice things for others. I wish I had used my real camera though. The quality of these pictures is pretty bad.

Christmas Eve: Zoo

We made our annual Christmas Eve trip to the zoo. We had brunch/lunch at Biscuitville (welcome to the south) and then spent a few hours exploring the zoo. We felt like we had the entire zoo to ourselves, rarely encountering anybody else. The weather was beautiful, 75 degrees. Snow is a fun idea for Christmas but it was so nice to walk around without being bundled up. I've definitely become a fan of mild winters, especially when it comes to entertaining energetic kids all day and getting outside regularly. And Oliver's stance on only wearing shorts worked out well for him with our warm December weather. We also attempted our annual visit to the photo booth, which is getting nearly impossible with our growing family. But it always provides a good laugh.

sugar cookies

The kids always love to make Christmas sugar cookies. We rolled out the cookies while watching "White Christmas" (and while Simon napped to minimize the chaos). He LOVED putting sprinkles on the cookies though. And taking bites out of as many cookies as possible.

 Finally hung the stockings!

Got brave enough to put presents under the tree. Simon was pretty good about leaving them alone the second time around. The girls, however, could not stop counting and shaking and moving them around. Their excitement was fun to see though.