Christmas Eve: Dinner + Nativity + Fondue

After our visit to the North Carolina Zoo we headed home for our Christmas Eve activities. First up was the traditional Olsen Christmas Eve dinner. One of the great things about this meal is that it can all be made ahead of time so I don't have to spend the night in the kitchen. I decided to skip the elaborate three-layer Christmas jello since I'm the only one that will eat it. Instead the kids cut nativity shapes out of jello. I don't know if a jello nativity is totally appropriate. But Oliver gobbled it up.

Our nativity production this year was a bit chaotic. Elsa was a very serious Mary trying to act alongside a completely crazy Joseph.

Joseph and Mary went off script here, wrestling on the floor, arguing about something. 

 Elsa insisted that Simon be baby Jesus. He enjoyed it for about 30 seconds.

 Joseph was not a super helpful husband.

 Amelia was a wiseman and a few other parts as needed.

After we had recovered from the nativity play, we had our traditional chocolate fondue and then the kids opened up new pajamas and set out some cookies for Santa. After they were in bed, Ben and I watched It's a Wonderful Life.

Christmas Eve: Zoo

We weren't sure we would continue the Christmas Eve tradition of going to the zoo since there isn't a zoo in Raleigh. But on Christmas Eve morning we figured we had the whole day to kill so we made the 1 1/2 hour drive to the North Carolina Zoo. It was a really great zoo and much larger than we anticipated. We spent nearly four hours there and didn't see everything. We pretty much had the place to ourselves which was awesome. There was quite a bit of walking but the kids never complained (I think the newness of it all kept them going) and we all had a great time. Perfect way to keep the kids occupied on a day filled with so much anticipation.

We passed a photo booth on our way out and decided to give it a try. It's getting more and more difficult to fit us all in those tiny booths. We barely managed, through fits of laughter, to get a bit of each of us in every shot.

Christmas tree by night.