Christmas Eve 2013

It was magical.  It was all we hoped it would be.  Let the fun begin!

To say that I am thrilled to be in this new house is an understatement.  For so long I felt like we weren't "settled"... and now I feel completely certain we are where we should be.

This house will be our forever home, so it was important that we start some major Christmas traditions immediately!

First up, green pancakes for breakfast!  Chase really wanted to help Daddy cook, and Whitney didn't want to be left out.  We added some chocolate chips for good measure!

 Next up, Gingerbread house making.  This was an all day event.  Daddy and Chase "glued" it together with frosting before naptime... and Chase did his best to get into all the candy.... "just to taste it and make sure it's good for the decorations."

After nap, he rushed down to the house and started eating and tossing candy into all the gooey frosting.  It was a crazy mess and he was so proud!

As it got later and started to get dark, I was most excited to start our new family tradition.  I thought long and hard about how to make more magic!  I remember the year that my parents helped Aaron and I set up a camera to catch Santa coming down the chimney, and I wanted to start something similar for Chase and Whitney.  We decided to make reindeer food and put it out in the driveway to help the reindeer find out house and keep they happy while Santa delivered his gifts.

Chase helped pick out the food reindeer like best.  According to him, it is kix, gold fish, raisins, and celery.

Chase diligently stirred it all together and we could see the magic start to happen.  He spread across his face in a huge grin, which only widened when we told him we were going to spread it all over the driveway.

As it started to get dark, we headed outside to sprinkle our reindeer food.  LOOK AT THAT SMILE!

Chase took care to spread it all out while Whitney supervised.

We were ready.   A new tradition was born.

Once Whitney was in bed and already dreaming of sugarplums, We snuggled in with Chase to watch Frosty the Snowman.  When I was a kid, I never though about growing up and watching this same movie on Christmas eve with my own kids. I think Kevin was most excited about this tradition.

It wasn't long before we got our fresh homemade cookies and a cup of milk for Santa all set up and then Kevin and I read Chase The Night Before Christmas. I was surprised at how emotional I was that Chase really understood some of the Christmas fun and enjoyed it so much.  He couldn't wait to get in his bed so he could wake up!

Daddy and I woke up in the middle of the night and saw that Santa had already come.  We got to take a sneak peak at the presents before the kids got to see them. Santa was so good to us this year!  We are surly blessed!