Christmas Eve

So of course I didn't get all my presents wrapped before today (or any of them for that matter...) so I need a break.

Despite all our best efforts, we did not have all our presents purchased this morning. Matt hadn't been able to finish what he wanted to on Saturday, so he headed out this morning to get the last couple items. I still had to get something for his stocking, and we had yet to get the last piece of the present for his dad. Oh, and we had to meet at my parent's house by 1:30 for the start of our Christmas Eve festivities.

At 12:15, Matt still hadn't gotten home and I was getting nervous.

We made it to mom and dad's on time...but I didn't have the chance to run to the store beforehand. Panic had set in at this point.

So, once everyone made it to mom and dad's, we headed out in a big caravan of cars to some unknown location for lunch. This is what it looked like when we got there and got settled...
















This shows most of us...We are a BIG group. There were 49 people all together at this particular gathering. I felt bad for the people behind us in line.

Fortunately, we had a couple minutes after lunch to run to the store so I could pick up the last thing for Matt and the book for his dad. Whew. Christmas shopping finally got finished at 4:30pm on Christmas Eve. (So much for the best laid plans...)

After that it was back to mom and dad's for games and hanging out. We played a bunch of games, including measuring a whole bunch of people for coffins...(Julie had to be the funniest, they used SO much water on that poor girl!)

We also had some of the kids play some music and a nice spiritual lesson from Bryson and Jill.

Then it was time for the opening the pj's on Christmas Eve tradition. You can sort of see the girls opening theirs in this picture.

Kenna was SO upset. She wanted to open a present really badly, and then to find out it was just pajamas about broke her heart. She wailed and cried like there was no tomorrow. Of course that probably had a lot to do with the fact that it was late and she was really tired, but still. You have never seen tears like this over pj's.

For the record, Alyssa happily accepted her pajamas and wanted to put them on right away. I think also because she was really tired and just wanted to go to bed.

(Kenna recovered quite quickly once they brought out the donuts.)

After hairy drive home in the snow at a late hour and getting the kids to bed, here we are. Half of the presents wrapped and completely beat from the long day. Luckily the kids are super tired and should sleep in tomorrow.

My eyes are struggling to stay open. I guess this means I need to go finish the presents...