As I headed up to our bedroom to shower, I spied a Target bag sitting on the floor of the closet. Well, that solved the mystery of the missing eggs. Sadly I had to toss them in the garbage.
Today was a day for "wrapping up" things in anticipation of Christmas.
Candace had lots of laundry to do and presents to wrap that had been delivered to our house. Kevin and Chris went in to Longmont where Kevin had a boil lanced at an Urgent Care and Chris ran some last-minute errands (including buying more eggs whites!).
The kids were quick to put on snow gear and head outside to play--sledding, building forts, tromping through the snow.
I spent time working on early preparations for dinner on Christmas day, baking, and trying to remember all the places I hid Christmas gifts. As our evening drew to a close, the excitement of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day grew.
We picked up pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner. Before it got too cold and late, we headed over to the Saddleback pathway to check out the Christmas lights there. It was fairly cold so we didn't last too long, but I don't think any of us minded.
After pizza, we started our Christmas Eve festivities, starting with singing Christmas carols. Kevin played the piano for us. We Facetimed Grandma Ball who was in the hospital recovering from surgery and enjoyed a little long-distance Christmas spirit.
We attempted a nativity. We haven't usually acted them out with our three girls, but we have always read the Christmas story and some years watched Mormon Messages that related. As we had lots of kids for the nativity this year, the older ones were less inclined to want to participate and the younger ones gave us lots of opportunity to laugh.
We had our gift exchange and finding out who bought for whom. I think it is safe to say that Joseph loved his gift.
And finally, my girls favorite activity of all, bringing the gifts up to put under the tree. With two families, there were a lot and Amy sat under the tree trying to place them all. They were pretty spread out, but I'll admit, I kind of like this part of our tradition too.
Kristen left a note for Santa.
And the last moment for Kristen was placing a reserved stickie note on the couch for her spot on Christmas morning.
