Christmas Eve began with the decorating of our gingerbread house....not sure if they decorated as much as they ate. Following our decorating fiesta, the children and I parted ways from Ryan. This is our tradition, just me and the children. We normally find ourselves amongst the frenzied shoppers of Target or the likes. And then it was off to a special lunch, just the four of us. Meanwhile, Ryan did his "work" at home.

During the early afternoon hours of Christmas Eve, we all dressed and prepared for church.

Gran and Pop met us at church. Following church we had friends over for our annual chilli dinner and reindeer food making party....always lots of fun and laughs.

When everyone had departed, the opening of one special gift began - the pjs. Gran and Pop always supply the holiday jammies for Christmas. Then the children made their way out to sprinkle reindeer food. MK wasn't so sure she wanted to share hers, she was more interested in whether or not she could eat some too!

It was getting late and all were anxious for an attempt to slumber so that Santa could make his way in. With Pryce nestled in beside Pop, the reading of Twas The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas Story began.

This is not even a posed pic. Both of them were out and neither even noticed that the books had been put away. Excitement did not get the best of P. However, our eldest struggled and struggled with going to sleep. He tossed and turned, we laid with him, we gave him Tylenol for fear Benadryl would do opposite effects, nothing worked....finally at 2:00ish AM he was at least drowsy so we all called it a night.

And then exactly 3 hours and 45 minutes later, with C being the first voice we heard, the sounds of laughter and joy and LOUD squealing rang in! This is our pic on the stairs, pre Santa.

And Pryce, even in the wee hours of the morning, was able to pull off a fantastic Happy Birthday Jesus performance with some squeaky choir members....

.....and then this happened - gifts, many desired gifts, were found....

and put to use.....

.....and we watched and marveled in their joy!