Christmas Eve 2015

I LOVE Christmas! I LOVE Christmas Eve! We opted to stay home again and just celebrate it as our little family of four. It just really brings us closer and allows us to focus on what Christmas is supposed to be about. 

I've decided that our traditional Christmas Eve food will be soup… just like mine was growing up. I like to try a new soup and so this year we went with a copycat of Zupa's Wisconsin Cauliflower. It was really easy and very good. We enjoyed it with a salad, some french bread, and sparkling apple cider.

I love using my Christmas plates!

Do you like our reindeer glasses? ;)

After dinner, we made Santa's cookie. I wanted to come up with a cookie that we use every year for Santa so I asked Lila what she wanted to do and she said a giant cookie. I added the idea of red and green m&ms to make it more Christmassy. (I make these for the primary kids when they earn their Faith in God, so Lila has seen a lot of these lately.) It was really fun to do and I think it's a perfect holiday cookie. 

Lila got to wear her apron that she got a couple years ago (maybe only last year?) along with all of her cousins. I wore my new apron that I was given from Lila and Brighton with their handprints on them. (Thanks Laura and Mum! I love it!) Brighton doesn't yet have his own apron, so we improvised! ;) 

After the cookie was in the oven, we listened to the Polar Express as the kids looked through the picture book with dad. 

Then, the cookie was ready to come out of the oven, and we set it up for Santa. 

Our cookie was much too big for our cookie plate… it is under the cookie in our picture, you just can't tell. 

Lila really wanted a pink cup for Santa so we also opted to not use our milk glass. We'll probably go back to our milk glass next year. ;) 

The kids got on their new pajamas that Dad bought for them! I could not get Brighton to stay still for a picture. He kept pushing against Lila. 

One of the last things we did was discuss what Christmas is really all about. This year we decided to buy the Fisher Price Little People Nativity so that the kids could have one that they could handle. I LOVE IT! One of the best purchases we've made in a while. The kids love it, play with it, talk about the people, etc. It makes them and me happy. :) Anyway, as Micah read from the scriptures we pointed out the people he was talking about with the nativity. It's fun to watch and see the progress Lila and Brighton make weekly with their understanding of who our Savior is and what He means to us. I'm grateful for times like this where we can emphasize Him even more. 

After the scriptures it was off to bed to listen to the Sugar Plum Fairy, put out our Santa sacks, and drift off to sleep. 

A wonderful night with a wonderful meaning! 

Our First Real Tree

Growing up I often had a real Christmas tree. It brings Christmas to a whole new level in my opinion. The smells, the look, the size… it's magical. Micah had never had one before so when he suggested we get one this year, I immediately jumped on the idea. 

Over the Thanksgiving break we went to a local tree farm to get one. (Funny side note, I actually taught two of the owner's daughters when they were in 2nd grade. I didn't know it was his farm, but I'm glad I do now. :)) The kids were overjoyed to go out and pick their own tree. It was hard to find the one, but once I saw it, I knew it was what we needed.

Just being in a tree lot makes the spirit of Christmas stronger. 

Aren't my children adorable? 

Once we got home we couldn't wait to get the decorations on. We put on the Frosty and Rudolph movies and started pulling everything out of storage.

The kids did a pretty good job with where they placed the ornaments and I never did go back and change them around. 

When we first putting on the star, Micah really wanted to just leave the crooked branch at the top and put the star there. I eventually convinced him to cut it off and put it on the stump. It fit nice and snug and looked beautiful!

We made sure that Lila and Brighton each put on their special ornaments.  

Lila's

Mine and Micah's

Brighton's

As soon as we got it decorated, the kids wanted to turn the lights off to really see the tree.

Lila wanted to decorate our new little felt tree, too. 

After these pictures were taken, I actually ended up adding some more as this tree was much bigger than years past and so we needed more than we originally had. 

It smelled lovely, looked amazing, and really got us in the holiday mood early. 

I hope we can get a real one again next year!