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.