Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was a frenzy of wrapping and organizing the house and running to the grocery store for last minute items for Christmas day. We spent the majority of the day at home making cookies and pumpkin bread for Christmas morning and just enjoying each other's company. We started this tradition of doing take out Chinese for dinner on Christmas Eve just as our little family of 3 since we spend the entire day on Christmas with our parents and extended family. It's a nice tradition and a nice time for us to enjoy our time together before the craziness of Christmas begins. This year, our church service wasn't until 7pm, which was a little late. It was a beautiful service and ended with a candle light Silent Night which is my favorite part. Cyrus had his own candle this year and took it very seriously. I had to light my candle off of his and he was very concerned about doing it right, it was adorable. We picked up our Take Out on the way home from church and arrived home around 9:00. We made Cy eat quickly so he could get to sleep before Santa arrived, and, so we could actually begin getting the house ready:) We needed to keep Cy out of his room to get his bed put together so we set up the tent downstairs in the guest room. We decided to sleep down there as a family to see if we could catch Santa coming down the Chimney. Brad was in the tent with Cy and I was in the guest bed, way too pregnant to be sleeping on a ground pad on the floor. I was originally thinking what a nice tradition it would be to sleep in our tent by the fireplace on Christmas Eve but it ended up being really loud and uncomfortable for us all. Brad and Cy made a LOT of noise every time they moved on the ground pads and kept waking each other and me up.

Once Cy was asleep in the tent though, it was go time! Brad went to Cy's room to put together his new Maxtrix King's Castle Low Loft Bed (w/slide). This was his big present this year, and it was an expensive one. I just felt like it was worth it though because it's not something he will lose interest in or out grow because you can keep changing it to reflect whatever stage he is in in life. We will be able to make it a high loft as he gets older and can put his desk and such underneath the loft or put another bed under there for sleepovers. Other than the bed, we decided to do a better job with presents this year. Last year we just did so much for Cy, and it was unnecessary. He has SO much and really needs nothing. So, we are going to give him 4 special presents each Christmas: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. Obviously, he will still get special presents from Santa but we want him to just get a few things he really wants/needs so he can appreciate those rather than have an overflowing house full like last year. Plus, we still do a second Christmas with the cousins at Doc & Jill's each Christmas afternoon. It's just a LOT of stuff.

We finally got all the gifts together and the bed completed by 1am and went down to "sleep". I think Brad made it until about 5:00 before he left for our bed and Cy crept in with me. I think that is when we finally actually fell asleep. Next thing I knew, Brad was waking us up telling me that it was 8:30. Cy and I were out! Doc and Jill were already here and my parents were just walking in as I came upstairs. Good morning!