Christmas Eve

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. It's so crazy how much time we spend getting ready for it, and it's over so fast. We once again had a wonderful Christmas Eve. Since our families are expanding, we decided to do Christmas with Robert's family Christmas Eve night; so we did all of our family stuff during the day. We started off the day by sleeping in and it was so nice. Once we all got up and dressed, we headed to IHOP for our traditional Christmas Eve meal. Unfortunately they didn't have the eggnog pancakes this year, but it was still yummy. After IHOP, we came back home and started making our birthday cake for Jesus and cookies for Santa. Bryson had so much fun helping to make and decorate the cake. Of course the best part about making a cake is licking the cake batter. Once the cake was all finished, we lit the candles and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Bryson did a great job blowing out the candles.

After baking, we put Bryson down for a nap since we knew that we would be up late that night. We kept waiting for Santa to come by the house on the firetruck and we even woke Bryson up from his nap because we thought we heard him, but he never came. One of my friends told me he came by later that evening but we had already left for Lisa's house. We ate a yummy dinner with Robert's family before opening some gifts and playing gift card dirty Santa. Of course our camera broke (just like last Christmas Eve) so we don't have many pictures.

We got two special surprises while we were at Lisa's. Santa (Eli) stopped by for a visit and he came by on the firetruck. Bryson loved seeing Santa both times. The firetruck Santa even came by a second time and waited in front of Lisa's house for Bryson to come back out and see him.

After we spent some time with Robert's family, we went to look at Christmas lights again. There was one house in the neighborhood across the street from Lisa that Bryson was obsessed with. It was one of those houses where the lights are set to music. There were two little drummer boys at the front steps (Bryson called those the ladies), some dancing trees, a train with toys and Santa, Santa's sleigh with all the reindeer, and these people that were ice skating (the kids). Bryson loved this house. He kept saying " I want to go see the kids and Santa". So I took a picture of the house for him. He finally stopped asking about the house once they took the lights down.

Once we got home, we tucked Bryson into bed so Santa to come. He always watches the Goodnight Show (Nina and Star as he calls it) while he's in the bed with us. On Christmas Eve, they played what was called a Snooze-a-thon. It was all the Goodnight Show characters asleep with sleepy music. It put Bryson straight to sleep. It didn't take long for Santa to arrive and for me to give Robert his gifts (I already got my gifts before Christmas Eve).