Christmas Eve

We had a lovely Christmas Eve this year. The girls and I started off the day baking ridiculously delicious tea cakes. Seriously, they're the best sugar cookies we've ever had, and Grace said we had to bake our best for Santa (and our family).

Ella enjoyed decorating them with Travis. In true form, she ate more icing and M&Ms ("em-em-ems") than she put on the cookies.

She really wanted to play outside, so Travis bundled her up, apron and all, and they headed out for some playtime.

Once inside, she refused to take off the gear and insisted on watching a movie in her highchair while having a snack.

Mid-afternoon, we headed off to the family service at church, but not until I snapped a few pictures. It just cracks me up that I can't get all three of them to smile at me.

The church service was geared toward families with small kids, so we certainly fit the bill. Still, I was a little nervous because Grace is the only one that has ever been to big church, but Ella and Sutton did great! I'm proud to say that not of our munchkins cried or screamed, although we heard a lot of that! It helped that Poppy, Dory, Bubba, Chachi and Grambi were with us--lots of hands to be passed around to. The children's choir performed, and we saw the nativity story play. It was so special to watch and celebrate Jesus' birth with our family.

When we walked out of church, it was snowing really hard! So crazy to see snow in Dallas, much less after it had been 70 degrees the day before.

We braved the cold and made it home to eat our Christmas Eve dinner tradition--tamales! Then, it was time for another tradition. We let the kids open two gifts on Christmas Eve. First, new personalized Christmas ornaments, and then, Christmas pajamas.

I really wanted a cute picture of the crew in their Christmas jammies, but Ella refused to look at me. I got one with Trav's assistance...yes, that's his hand on Ella's head...

Poor Sutton. Grace loves to hold him like this.

Here are the personalized ornaments they got this year. We also give them old-fashioned glass ornaments that represent their interests the past year. The girls got cupcake ornaments, and I'm still searching for the perfect one for Sutton (I figure he doesn't care much).

The girls watched a bit of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (for the 100th time), and I caught them snuggling like this. Grace said she was protecting Ella.

Before going to bed, we got out Santa's special plate and cup to fill with cookies, milk and carrots for his reindeer. The girls were just giddy about it, and as soon as we set it all down by the fireplace, Ella reached over and poured the entire cup of milk onto the plate of cookies. She and Grace thought it was hilarious!

We cleaned up the mess, got Santa some fresh cookies and milk and rinsed off the carrots and decided that this would be a safer place for the special snack.

We started a new tradition this year, and my dad read the Christmas story for all of us. The girls nibbled on snow balls and actually listened for a while. At one point, Grace declared, "This is boring. There aren't even any kid pictures in your Bible." Sorry, Jesus, but the girl is used to her kid-friendly picture Bible. We switched to that, and they listed contently. After lots of hugs and night-night kisses, we continued our tradition of reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and tucked the girls into bed. I absolutely love being about to create and continue traditions for our precious babies. Christmastime is just magical!