Christmas Eve goodness

We woke up this morning to Jeff surprising us all with some William Sonoma goodies! He had gone on his own (just fell off my chair with shock) and had bought our families favorite Peppermint Hot Chocolate and our favorite waffle mix to make us breakfast. That guy!

I loved that we had church today, even though I missed the whole program because I was out in the hall with the girls, I didn't care because it was just so great to be at church.

The girls opened gifts from their Grammy (Jeff's mom) before church. Be prepared to be jealous, she made all the girl granddaughters matching dresses. I am sure she was wishing I had had all boys. They are black velvet Mary D pattern dress with their monogram on them. Annie Kate grabbed the dress held it up to her in the mirror and said "Oh Mom I just love it!"

Annie Kate age 8

Caroline age 3

Sally Jane age 1

Just the girls

We then spent the whole day calling the free national tracking number for Santa. It was completely run by volunteers and they were so friendly each time we called, which was about every hour. We then would run to the map and see where he was. They always asked us where we were from and then gave an estimate of when they thought he would be in D.C. It was a highlight of the day.
Jeff completed his deep fat fried turkey training at our friends house this afternoon. He did the injections last night. We had it for dinner and oh my.... there is nothing better. David and Lenessa you would have loved it!
It felt like grand central station around our house, we had so many friends stop by and bring us goodies and yummies. I feel like a walking piece of divinity with the goodies we have had. This was a 5 layer cake that our neighbors brought us. These are fake leaves and then yellow sprees, such a cute idea.We had a yummy dinner and did our traditional English Crackers. My mom started this years ago and it is one of my favorite Christmas dinner traditions. you pull the crackers until they pop and then you get a toy, a fortune and a hat to wear during dinner. Caroline got a little pink car which is grasped in her little hand as she sleeps. If you have never done these put it on your list to do next year. They are so fun and can be found the next few days half off!We then loaded our pineapples for Christmas Eve delivery. We go Christmas carroling on Christmas Eve (which is something my husbands family did growing up) and then we give a pineapple to the family with a big red bow.

We got blankets, pillows and light sticks and loaded up in the back of the truck to drive around the neighborhood see the lights, delivery our last piece of the nativity and go carroling. We had our Christmas music blaring and me and the girls snuggled in the back. Two of the houses that we sang to, invited us in. We got to hear a violin performance of Away in the Manger that was incredible from a boy in Annie Kate's class at church. And also see my seamstress friend's incredible quilt collection and spend some time with their family.

We came home set out our cookies, milk for Santa and carrots and lettuce for the reindeer.
Annie Kate put out her video camera and a note to Santa to hopefully catch him in the act. This year she asked him to leave her a message. Wait till you see what we did...
The girls opened their PJ's and got ready for bed. We took our traditional photo of the girls pretending to be asleep.
When the girls went to bed we went and took a hour nap to rest up for the night of putting together the toys and wrapping the gifts.
I can't wait for tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!