Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve came, and we had all of our running around finished, so we were able to spend our day just enjoying hanging out together at home.  I did curlers in Kate's hair again.  

Kate wore my boots around, then read stories with Grandma, while we waited for her hair to dry in her curlers.

 

Kate managed to knock most of her curlers out before her hair was dry, but we still got some cute curls out of it. 

Savannah was asked to take care of our friends' cat while they were out of town for Christmas.  She had to go over to their garage every day to give it more food and water and change it's litter box.  And we let her sneak it over to our house for a play date.  All our kids were in heaven.

Grandma and Grandpa forgot to bring their stockings.  So Savannah pulled out some old fabric and sewed them some stockings, all by herself.

We had gone to Toy Town the day before, to let the kids pick out a few last presents for each other.  Owen found a few things in that store, that he absolutely had to have.  So, he added them to his list (and circled the ones he wanted to the most), and had Scott take a picture of his list and email it to Santa, so he would get it in time.

The Sorensen tradition is to have fondue on New Year's Eve.  Since we wouldn't have my parents here on New Year's, we did fondue for Christmas Eve instead.  Scott also made orange rolls (a Howell favorite).

It had been raining all day long, but as evening hit, it turned to snow.  The kids were so excited that we would have a white Christmas!

After dinner, the kids all got to open up their Christmas pajamas.  

They put on their jammies, and we all loaded up in our giant van, and headed out to look at lights.

Owen fell asleep on the drive there, but we woke him up when we found some lights.

We found an awesome display of lights, with the lights set to music (you tuned in on your radio).  We piled as many kids into the front seat as we could, so everyone could see the show.

 

When we got back home, I made the kids pose in front of the tree for Christmas Eve pictures.

 

It's a tradition of ours to have all the kids sleep together in the bonus room.  Scott drags all the mattresses in to the floor, and they all sleep together (except Kate, she slept in her crib). 

We all watched "A Christmas Story" together, with the kids on their mattresses, and the adults on the couches, to help the kids wind down and fall asleep.  But even after the movie ended, the talking and the excitement kept the kids up till nearly 1:00 in the morning.  But finally, they all went to sleep, and our quiet house waited for Santa to come.

The Village

My parents came the evening of the 22nd.  The kids waited all day for them to get here.  The next day, we loaded everyone up to venture out on a Christmas adventure.  We started out with lunch at Cafe Zupas.  Owen was really not happy about this, because Zupas doesn't have a play place (like McDonald's), and he made quite a scene crying about not wanting to be there.  The rest of the kids behaved well, and most of us really enjoyed lunch.

Every time we loaded up in the van, we had fits about who got to sit by Grandma.  This time it was Nate who threw the tantrum.

We then went to The Village, an outdoor mall in Meridian.  We planned to let the kids ice skate, but the line was 2 hours long, so we just wandered around instead.

Grandpa tried to throw Savannah in the fountain.

Kate was fascinated with the fountain (which dances to music).

They have a little playground there in the courtyard, so the boys and Kate played on the toys while the rest of us wandered around looking at the Christmas decorations.

 

One of our friends was there singing Christmas carols.  She has an amazing voice, and it was so fun to listen to her sing.  Kate loved her dress, and followed her around clapping for her.

Even though it was cold, this little one loved it there.

The kids enjoyed the warm fire.

Next we went to Menchies, a frozen yogurt place.  We'd never been, but I had a coupon for $1 cups of yogurt.  So we fed all 11 of us for just over $11.  The kids loved the place.  It was very child friendly, and we had the place to ourselves, so it was great.

Kate loved the chalk board.

So did the big kids.

Then it was home, after a great afternoon of fun.  Poor little Kate, was so tired (she missed her nap).  She fell sound asleep on the drive home.  It was such a fun afternoon!