Christmas Eve 2009

Our Christmas Eve went on pretty much as planned. I worked a few hours in the morning and then headed home to make Christmas Eve Supper.

Menu:

Cheap Walmart Ham (lessoned learned Honey Baked Ham only on the Eve from now on!)

Corn Casserole

Green Bean Casserole

Double Stuffed potatoes

Pumpkin Pie (that had been in our freezer for about two years and did not get ate because of the odd color of the pie. We then left it in the trash and left for the holidays...that smelled great. Oops)

Not a bad set up and I got to use my awesome Christmas China from Pottery Barn. Lily even got a plastic place setting to match last year from Mimi

She is getting so good with the fork and spoon. She LOVED the double stuffed potato!

Lily loves Mama's cooking (at least someone does!)

Before dinner we decorated cookies for Santa. By decorate I mean we ate them all! Or at least Lily and Daddy did! She looks so innocent....like she doesn't realize these were not for her!

Daddy enjoying "icing" the cookies.

Hard at work!

Yum Yum

Looking at Daddy for guidance on how to shove a whole cookie in your mouth

After Supper we each opened one gift per my family tradition. Michael got half of his basketball jumpsuit. Isn't he a handsome model?

Lily opened a gift from Aunt Meg and Uncle Craig. Which she loved! It was Elmo Books and what is not to love about that!

Brooke and Scott were so sweet to invite us over for Christmas Eve dinner with there family. We had plans of going to church for the first time (other than Christenings!) in ten years, so we couldn't make dinner but we decided to stop by and bring some holiday cheer in the form of my famous Chocolate Cheesecake. Lily was quite the entertainer with Tara's Rudolph ears.

Brooke modeling the ears while cooking.

The happy couple...you would never guess Brooke was six and half months preggers with little Dylan who is due in April! I forced her to take this "belly shot"

After visiting for awhile we headed to church. My friend Dana invited us to a church were her brother was playing in the guest symphony for the ceremony. We were nervous about two things 1) The church would burst into flames as we entered the doorway 2) Lily would yell out "aaaawwww shhheeeett" in the middle of the service. Luckily no fires escalated upon our arrival. But to say it went well would be a lie. She was pretty sleepy for the 7:30 service and started out very quiet and still but by the first prayer she needed entertainment. I pulled out my arsenal aka my purse and produced a book of furry animals. All is quiet she is flipping through the book we are praying and then she drops the book "UH-OH!" REALLy Loud! Quick recovery: Grab the book STAT. She then opens the book and in the dead silence says "DOG WUF WUF!" This produced a few chuckles from the congregation.

You can imagine what followed...a lot of squirming and fussing followed by Dada taking her to roam the halls. We made it to communion and then had to duck out. And by we I mean me. Michael may have saw ten minutes of the service. But hey he was in the building so it counts. In hind site we may need to skip the candlelight service and stick to the kids service for a few more years.

We hurried home and rushed through Twas the night before Christmas (they told the Bible Christmas story at church so I at least heard that) and said our goodbyes to Lyle. Then we tucked her in with a kiss.

We forgot to put out Christmas cookies for Santa...oops. But somehow he still made it to our house. All that work and we forgot to put the tin out Lily. Miraculously the cookies were still gone the next morning :) The toys got delivered and assembled and the stockings stuffed with little trouble.

We were all in bed before midnight waiting for the following mornings festivities.

And before you ask yes I had to Google wear the Christmas story was in the bible for the Christmas Eve reading...neither of us had any idea.