Christmas Eve

My last day of work and school for the kids was Friday the 21st.  It was such a bummer going that close to Christmas! We had a fun weekend though.  We went to a work party for Nick that night at the airport.  He's the youngest worker and the only one with kids still at home.  We were worried that the kids would be tired and loud and we wouldn't fly under the radar since our kids were the only ones!!! However, they were awesome!!! Isn't it such a relief when it all goes great and there are no major freak outs!!! We ate and visited and one employee made a calendar for all the guys and he even got a gift for both kids!! It was so cool and considerate! Then we did a white elephant game and Nick and I planned on just letting the kids help us but they insisted they played and someone (not sure who) brought two extra gifts so they could participate.  Isn't that awesome?! The kids had a blast and they were so good, it made it all very fun and easy.  The next day we ran to Cedar to visit my mom and brother.  It was nice for the kids to see them and they got to play in the snow for a bit.  We ran to breakfast and visited for a little while.  That evening some of our faves came to visit! The Madsen family live in Texas now but were driving home to Utah for the holidays.  2 parents, 2 kids in diapers, and a dog driving 2,000 miles=craziness!!!! They are so brave! I've done that drive a few times and I'm not gonna lie....I wanted to kill myself and I love road trips!!! :) Anyways, we were glad they stopped and ate and visited for awhile.  We love their fun little family and wished they lived closer!!!!! The next day was church and then Linda came to visit and drop off gifts.  It was a fun weekend of visiting with peeps! Now onto Monday--Christmas Eve!! It was a super fun day! Well, it didn't start off super great.  We had to go to Wal-Mart and Costco.....yes, we are crazy apparently! They crazy part was, we didn't even need gifts--just food!! So we ran and shopped then came home and let the kids open a few gifts before Nick had to run to work.  They played with the gifts for a bit while I made cookies for Santa.  After that, we decided to go feed the ducks.  That's always a blast and the kids are getting more and more brave. After the ducks, we decided to stop by the temple and see the nativity scene and walk through the visitors center.  After that, we did a scavenger hunt for different Christmas decorations and lights.  Reag loved it, Hunter lost interest pretty quick. We went home, set out the cookies, made reindeer food, put out our magic key for Santa and snuggled into our jammies. We started reading some Christmas stories and then to our surprise, the kids got a call from Santa!!! They thought it was the coolest thing EVER! Santa called last year too and Reag was wondering if he would call again.  After the kids got settled again we read Luke and listened to some fun Christmas Hymns that go along with the reading then it was off to bed! After a bit, Santa got busy bringing things to our house!! Thankfully, Nick was able to leave work early that night and got home just AFTER Santa was done.  :) That's okay, he was there to help do the last minute things that we always enjoy doing together. We definitely got spoiled from Santa this year!!!!

Opening Christmas Eve gifts

Can you believe I took this picture with my phone?!

Christmas light scavenger hunt

Making reindeer food

Putting the reindeer food out

Putting Santa's magic key outside for him

Every year we make the same cookies: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut

Getting ready to listen to stories. I buy a new Christmas book each year so we always have lots of good stories to read throughout the month and then we read the new one Christmas Eve.  This year I bought the Christmas Train, by President Monson.  It was super cool because it came with a CD of him reading the story.  It was pretty cool to hear his deep, kind, raspy Grandpa voice and to have the Prophet's voice in our home that evening. 

Being reindeer

Talking with Santa!!! Hunter did too, but I only got a video.

Hunter's Santa gifts and a few for my dad on the right

Reag's Santa gifts

Mom's Santa gifts

Dad's Santa gifts and a gaming chair that didn't get pictured.