We spent the evening at Nana and Granddad's (which we definitely did last year, and maybe the year before?) for Christmas Eve dinner and presents. I love that this helps spread out the gift-receiving for the kids, where they have more time to be excited and focus on just a few set of presents. (There are pictures and movies that were taken, but please no one hold your breath about seeing them posted.)
After dinner the kids got into their pajamas and we hopped into the car to see some Christmas lights on a circuitous route home. There's an awesome house 5 minutes down the road from Nana and Granddad's that has a yard just FULL of lights and inflatables and a movie of Santa walking through an upstairs bedroom... no music but tons of fun things to look at. Then we swung by two other houses that have light shows set to music before driving home. The past two years I've promised myself we won't wait until Christmas Eve to do this, but maybe next year...
Then it was cookies and milk for Santa and reading of "The Night Before Christmas." I quickly hustled the big two kids into bed (they were yawning and Sarah kept remarking about how tired she was). I was planning on skipping the Christmas tree picture, but Brian had set up the camera and mentioned it to Andrew, who then kept repeating "tee, tee". So I stuck my head back into the big kids' rooms and surprisingly they were happy to hop out of bed one last time to take our traditional picture.
(Past years: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011)
So with that: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
