The Day We Celebrated Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day has always been one of my favorite days. This year was our first Christmas in Spokane without any company, so we tried to mix things up a bit.

For starters, amidst the crazy blizzard conditions in Spokane, we had an early 10 year anniversary present to each other get delivered. The girls were so excited to have a piano but Katelyn immediately starting expressing her concern about having more homework because of piano lessons.

Throughout the day Katelyn helped me prepare our traditional Christmas dinner. This year we decided to enjoy our prime rib extravaganza a day earlier so we could have Christmas dinner at the our good friends' (the Albrecht's) house on Christmas day. Brooke napped through most of the preparation but Katelyn helped me the entire time. I told her how impressed I am that at only six years old, she can make rolls from scratch - I couldn't do that until a few years ago. We ended up with almost 9 lbs of prime rib, 4 dozen rolls, 1/2 dozen twice baked potatoes and a smattering of cooked veggies and sauces for dipping - just for the 4 of us. Everyone enjoyed the meal and ate what seemed like a lot. But when we cleaned up, there were still about 7.5 pounds of meat left and more rolls than I could count. It was ok though because those are great leftovers.

Next, the girls watched a Muppet Christmas special while Kyle tried to nap away the meat coma that he was in. Then it was time to make cookies for Santa. The girls carefully selected the perfect cookie cutters and sprinkles for Santa and Rudolf.

Finally, it was time to open their Christmas Eve present. Since the girls got their Christmas jammies early this year, they decided to open the big presents to them from Grandma Carol. They were both so excited to have new "Littlest Pet Shop" houses and pets. It took us about 20 minutes to get them out of the box, but once we did they played and played with them and were distracted only by little piano breaks here and there.

When it was time for bed, Katelyn carefully set out the treats for Santa... along with the cookies and milk, she also carefully placed nine carrots on the plate so there was one for each of the reindeer. Rudolf also got a special cookie that was shaped just like him. Brooke's participation with the treat plate consisted of wanting to sample the treats, so the the girls had some cookies and milk of their own before heading off to bed. It was a wonderful day and night and there were definitely visions of sugar plums and prime rib dancing in our heads.