Christmas Eve & Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve day was spent cleaning. I wanted the house to be completely organized for Christmas morning. It didn't happen. Not even close. But we made a little progress and considering how our month had been going, I was happy with it. We had dinner at our house and fancied it up with Martinelli's. That always does the trick. It doesn't matter how dinner turns out, if there is Martinelli's, everyone is happy.

After dinner the girls got a bath and then they got to open their Christmas PJ's. 

Clara got slippers. She's been wanting them for years, but I could never find any her size until this year. The look on Hazel's face when she saw Clara's slippers made me feeler smaller as a mother than anything I can remember. They had the same pj's, but Clara got slippers and Hazel didn't. Every 30 seconds, Hazel's eyes would lock on the slippers and she'd zone out for several seconds. It was really sad and really, really funny all at once.

The girls put their jammies on and we headed to my parent's.

First we rode around in the back of my dad's truck and looked at lights in my parent's neighborhood. That didn't last long because it was so cold.

Then we had cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate and opened gifts from Lilly and my parent's. Oh, and my dad told us a story. He didn't tell Wally, I missed that one. But it's okay because a.) Ryan recorded it last year and b.) he told a pretty awesome story about one of his relatives that sacrificed his safety to save a small child from a fire (he was a fireman).

We went home, put the kids to bed and did the few things we had to do.

Clara woke up early and snuck in our room. We made her hang out with us until about 7:30am when Hazel woke up. If you recall, I had the bright idea of going to Disneyland for a Christmas/birthday surprise. It all seemed like a good idea until three days before Christmas. I realized the girls only had two gifts to open, one of which they would open on Christmas Eve (their pj's). I made them photo books from Disneyland, but hadn't ordered them on time so they wouldn't have those. I totally panicked. Fortunately, Jason bought each of them a gift (he does it every year, all by himself, and I love it), they had a gift for each other and they had gifts from family. It worked out just fine and they loved what they got. Hazel's main attraction: play cupcakes. She says, "Happy Birthday" every time she sees them.

Clara's main attraction: a loom for knitting/crocheting.

Hazel also got her very own chapstick in her stocking and it was eaten by the end of the day.

And I couldn't help but take a picture of Jason's wrapping job. At least he wrapped it, right?

I love the Christmas season. I love the extra family time and the generous and peaceful spirit that seems to be stronger than usual. I'm always a little bummed when it's over knowing I have to wait a whole year for it to happen again. But then I realize all the fun things I have to look forward to throughout the year and I get over it.