Christmas Eve 2019

Billy made us a sausage and egg breakfast first thing in the morning. We decided to read the bible story of Jesus' birth afterwards. I had told the kids that we will not open a single gift until we have taken time to reflect on the real reason for the season. We all took turns reading, then did some discussing. We told the kids that after helping out around the house, we would let them open a gift. They were both in awe that they had so many gifts to open. The gifts looked way bigger, I had to package each one in a cardboard box due to lil Miss Millie being super excited to "open" the gifts under the tree...silly puppy. Some of  the gifts were clothing items, or things they already knew they were getting too but they were still very grateful and I loved their thoughtfulness about it. Blake even said that it made him feel bad to have so many gifts because he didn't get us that many. I certainly did not want that to happen, but it does make my heart happy to know he thinks about things that way. I love that kid. Both kids are always super appreciative and don't expect big things, that's why it's so fun to give them more and see the surprise. 

Billy and I made a run to the store for egg nog and last minute things, and that was definitely not in our plan. It worked out because then we could drop off some little gifts to Christian, Ky, Donna and Shelby.

We decided to have a delivered meal from WingStop on Christmas Eve this year. We usually cook a bunch of appetizers and snack all evening but I decided that cooking all evening and on Christmas Day too, was a bit much. I really enjoyed just "knowing" that dinner was taken care of. We did spend the morning, baking and prepping for the Christmas Day meal. We were still finishing up last minute wrapping and such as well. The kids helped with wrapping Dad's special gift "tree" and it cracked me up, watching Blake try to close a box without tape. You know, just folding in the flaps correctly...both kids tried and failed several times, it was hilarious to watch! lol!

We decided to let them open each other's gifts. Blake gave Taylor a Stranger Things tee that he found at Target and an Apple gift card. (which kinda gave her big gift away...an ipad) Tay gave Bubby the Spiderman DVD he had been wanting and a Steam gift card...both were happy. We then played a game of crazy 8's....we made a rule that whoever won the most points out of 5 hands, gets to open the next gift. Blake won and got to open his Mickey shirt. He picked this out so he already knew he liked it.

We played another game, this time...Headbandz. It's fun but gets annoying kinda quick and so it's a good thing that the food was delivered mid game..lol. We ate our wings, while watching some of "A Christmas Carol" and then let the pups unwrap gifts..neither of them knew what to do, too bad Sophie wasn't here to teach them. That ol' girl sure knew how to de-wrap a present!! Both dogs were quiet once they got their antlers. We should have given that gift to them first!

We went ahead and did our Christmas Eve unwrapping of the gifts. Blake got the graphics card for his pc, several shirts that he had picked out, an Adidas beanie, and a weighted blanket. Tay got the ipad she had had her eye on, except it was still a surprise because she thought it would be the one with the smallest amount of storage- it was the one with 128gig! She was so happy. She also got some face masks, a Stitch pj onsie (which were way too warm because it was 50 degrees today!), a sequence art project and a weighted blanket too. They got me a tall mug I wanted, the Ring doorbell and a waterproof bluetooth stereo!  Dad got a "My cup runeth over" mug, the uncut Christmas vacation dvd, a gel seat, a metronome, and the special tree stacked gift was a membership with the Nashville Songwriter's association and a trip to the seminar in March! He was really happy and we were so glad!

 

  

Blake immediately wanted to go take his computer apart and put the new graphics card in, so that's what the boys did. Tay was busy setting up her new ipad. The computer ended up working perfectly and Blake did lots of tests to see how it was running and I could tell by the big smile that it was the perfect gift! Tay and I eventually settled down to grapes and boursin cheese, followed by the tradition of Dad reading the Night Before Christmas Book.  I had to focus on the fact that it was a relaxing evening, free of sneaking around and being Santa, otherwise I would be gotten sad. We settled in for our slumber and it twas a good night for all..lol.