Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve morning was a work day for me. I had breakfast and then got to work baking at least 4 dozen sugar cookies. Those were the orders according to my Mom....my Dad loves sugar cookies! 

Normally I decorate almost all the cookies and it takes forever. It's the part I look forward to the least. This year I decided to let go of my perfection and let the kids have at it! 

They each took 3 cookies at a time and decorated them using the frosting they had. After that they passed that frosting off to the next person so they would all have a chance to use each color. 

It worked surprisingly well and the kids had a blast!

Jackson had a bit of trouble in regards to getting frosting all over his wax paper, but he worked through it. 

When I went to find the sprinkles a few days earlier when we made the Christmas brownies I was a little surprised to see how few sprinkles we had. Then I thought back to the last time we used them and I remembered we let the kids add them to their ice cream without helping them. I hope they enjoyed their sprinkles with ice cream! 

Of course Zeke did not want to frost his...that would require getting messy and he is so not down with that. I went ahead and frosted his cookies and he put the sprinkles on. 

Of course at the end they each got to decorate a special cookie they got to eat! 

They also got to lick the little bit of frosting that was left in the bowls. 

Isn't that sweet! I'd say so! I only ended up frosting around 8 cookies. Yahoo!!! 

In the end I think we had at least 5 dozen cookies for Christmas! 

Once we finished the cookies we jumped in the van and went to Papa & Grandma's house. The kid got to play with Papa's guitar, cars and drink chocolate milk! Then it was time for presents!

We always start youngest to oldest so Zeke got to go first. He got these cool monster trucks that came with extra chassis's so he could change out the look of them. 

   

Ella got girly stuff....which as you can see was a total hit. Her kit included lotion, glitter, hair chalk and a hot pink hair extension to clip in her hair!

Now I know I said that we went youngest to oldest, but Jackson opted to be last so that's why Owen went next. Papa got him this cool Air Hog plane.

Jackson got one as well. Of course they wanted to fly them right then, but they are the kind that do flips so we needed to do them outside. Waiting can be SO hard! 

Of course I didn't take pictures of the adults! We got Papa and Grandma their calendar we always get them, a chocolate bar and a Starbucks gift card. We got this cool Ninja chopper which I'm super excited about because our Magic Bullet is on it's way out! 

We were only able to stay at Papa & Grandma's house for a little while because I had to be at church by 3pm since I was singing in the choir. Last year I sang in the choir as well, but was so sick I ended up missing out on Christmas Eve service. 

Ga-Ga & Pa came to the first service as did Michael and the kids. Our choir director stepped out of the way to fix something so Pa was able to sneak a quick picture. I wish I had known he was doing that so I could have smiled! It was really fun and tiring singing in the choir...I'm so happy this year I didn't get sick until after Christmas! 

My family....of course Zeke's hands are in the air!

It was fun getting to be with Ga-Ga & Pa celebrating at church. 

The tree looked so pretty with all the presents around it. I don't know, but Christmas Eve is my favorite. There is that anticipation of the next morning and all the joy to come. Once the presents are actually all opened I usually get a little bummed! 

Even though they know we are Santa they still wanted to leave cookies and milk. Once they were tucked into bed I filled their stockings. 

The kids "Santa" gifts were all set out and we were ready for Christmas morning!