Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started out as a hectic morning. We had put off taking our family picture until this day, but mostly by default. Ben is never home from work before the sun goes down and then all of our weekends in December were either too busy or it was raining.

I knew I wouldn't be able to enjoy Christmas Eve until this picture was taken and over with. Picking out and coordinating outfits for the six of us, and then getting everyone in "picture acceptable appearance", along with working around nap times and finding a time when everyone was happy was exhausting, to say the least.

Here was our favorite family pose of the day.

Here was the worst of the out takes, which really was not bad at all. There was no crying or whining and everyone was very patient and pleasant. It was awesome. The only bad thing was trying to beat the rain. It sprinkled on us the entire shoot.

This was our second favorite, taken in the exact same place as last year's family photo.

My favorite picture of the day- all of the kids!

The photo shoot when so smoothly and I was literally able to breathe a huge sigh of relief when it was over.

Call us crazy, but after the photo shoot we headed to the store to do some last minute shopping. Yes, the stores are all packed and hectic on Christmas Eve, but we needed some groceries and a few other things. It was crowded and loud and busy, but we were all together as a family and it was actually fun.

We do our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. I like it this way- I don't have to do any big cooking or work on Christmas Day and then we have leftovers to eat for days.

Ben, carving the roast beast (ham).

The gang, enjoying our delicious spread.

One of our favorite parts of the weekend was having Ben's sister Bethany fly in from Utah to spend Christmas with us. We loved having her. Oh, my, were our kids obsessed with her and she was such fun to have around. The weekend went by much too fast. This is our second Christmas at our house (love that!) and our first time having someone come spend it with us at our house. What a treat.

After dinner was all cleaned up, the kids helped make sugar cookies for Santa (and leftovers for us!)

Before the twins went to bed, we got some shots of everyone in their red union suits. (Our first debut in them was at Halloween when we dressed up as Who's).

Yep, we ALL have them. Sexy, right?

After the pictures, we let the kids open a Christmas Eve package from Nana and Papa.

It was a cute kid friendly nativity set.

We also let them open a Christmas Eve package from us- a Christmas puzzle to put together, and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (both the animated and recent one).

After the movies, Chloe and Mitchell frosted and decorated cookies and set out milk for Santa, along with a note. Their note states the worry that they've had all month long: that Santa will have a hard time getting down the chimney.

"Dear Santa,

These cookies and milk are for you. We hope you like them. We hope you make it down the chimney ok. You are the best. Merry Christmas!

Love,

Chloe, Mitchell, Leah and Lexi"

The kids also said goodnight to our "Elf on a Shelf" on Christmas Eve. This was a tradition that we started just this year. As the book says, The Elf on a Shelf is sent to your house from the North Pole. Each day he sits on a shelf or ledge and watches the children. After everyone is in bed each night, he flies back tot he North Pole and reports the children's behavior to Santa. Then he flies back to your house and is in a new spot each morning.

Chloe and Mitchell absolutely loved "Nicky," the name they chose for our elf. They loved coming down each morning to see where he was hiding. They would even guess how they thought he got to that particular spot. ("I bet he hopped up on the chair, jumped onto the table, then swung up to the curtain rod.")

Nicky leaves on Christmas Eve and will come back next December. Goodbye Nicky. Thanks for being a great motivation for good behavior in the Andros house this Christmas season!