Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the whole year! I love the anticipation and the fun traditions we have. I love just being with my little family. Since we don't have extended family to celebrate with )o: and we miss them so much at this time of year, we have come up with some fun traditions to look forward to.
One of those traditions is cheese fondue for dinner! We adopted this fun tradition from my two good friends Laurie and Tina. I thought it was such a fun idea, I stole it. (o: It's great because it's something we don't normally do the rest of the year and it's very easy to pull together on a busy day. Plus there is something that all the girls will eat. (Even though Nat doesn't like melted cheese, she likes putting the meat and veggies and bread on the stick.)

This was a naughty thing that Bob* and I drank too much of over the holidays and probably one of the reasons I gained some weight! Ugh - but it tastes so good!

Each Christmas Eve, the girls get to open one present and it is never a surprise what it is. However, the girls are always excited to see what their Christmas pajamas will look like.

This year, I was in a glittery mood (I made Christmas cards, invitations and the pajama shirts sparkle with glitter.) So I got crafty and made snazzy matching shirts for the fun sparkly jammie bottoms I found on Old Navy.com. They turned out pretty cute...

Natalie's expressions always crack me up.

Hey look - it's me decorating our Costco gingerbread house.

Angela was my best decorator this year! She lasted much longer than her older sisters who got bored and went to play the Wii.

One side looks a little more tasty than the other.

Other traditions not pictured:

Putting out a treat for Santa.

Checking online to see where in the world Santa is to motivate the girls to get to bed.

Reading the Christmas story from a beautiful picture book with the words from Luke in the bible before bedtime.

Bob* and I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" while wrapping presents.