Our fancy meal on Christmas Eve was pretty darn fabulous with Mom and Dad supplying a hefty ham and Brent trying his hand at the Nielsen recipe of Aunt Bea's potatoes. Hands down the best we'd ever had. Mom made her savory rolls and there were plenty of leftovers to feast on Christmas Day. Mom and Dad went to bed early while Whitney stayed up with us to watch A Christmas Story as we stuffed the stockings.
I don't think the girls ever really went to sleep on Christmas Eve. Although they have separate bedrooms, we kept seeing flashes of them running up and down the hallway and heard them chattering away until at least 3AM. With all of that excitement, the girls were pretty groggy when they finally descended the stairs after Brent rang the bell.
Ireland wanted her turn as Saint Lucia. We brought Mom and Dad a breakfast tray of hot chocolate and warmed up rolls with jam.
They leisurely ate breakfast in bed while the girls tore into their stockings. It always interests me what the girls get most excited about but everyone is so happy to get their can of Pringles.
One of my favorite traditions is sharing Pringle pics with my siblings on Christmas day!
The Cranes had us for gift exchange this year and Katrina gave the girls these adorable skirts.
On the flip side, we just happened to have Whitney and Tim for gift exchange and it was fun to see Whitney's reaction when she opened her gift. It's one of the fancy schmancy aprons worn by the barista's at Starbucks Reserve Roastery.
Whitney had been Jonesing for one for years.
Another favorite is the gift exchange between the girls. Sydney really wanted to wrap her gifts herself and aside from measuring out the wrapping paper and handing her strips of neon pink duct tape (she decided regular tape wasn't getting the job done), she really did do it all herself. I loved her lovingly, securely, imperfect wrapping job.
One of the heart-melting presents is one Brigitta requested I help her with for Brent. A few weeks earlier, she had accidentally broken a glass cup. Brent was pretty upset about the mess and after that Brigitta whispered to me that she wanted to get him a new one for Christmas. It was the sweetest thing. She was trying so hard to make her wrong right and as you can see, Brent was touched.
Brigitta also used duct tape on her wrapping job which made her gift to Sydney a little difficult to open. See all that effort on her face?
Attempting another angle...
With great effort, finally getting an end open.
Brent wore these antlers pretty much all day... with the tag still on them. Sydney just knew he'd love them!
Grandma Wuehler sent along these hand-knitted hats for the girls and they quickly became favorite winter wear.
Reagan flew in that evening and so we kept the party going by celebrating her birthday which was Christmas Eve.
She really wanted this robe, but they were sold out in the store near her so I checked ours and voila! It was available in her size. Even though she grew up here, the frigid midwest winters are always quite the shock to her system so that cozy robe was perfect for her.
Having family around for Christmas was fun but getting even more family by the end of the day was even better. We all got to go shopping at the American Girl store and eat Lou Malnati's pizza and go see Pitch Perfect 3. It was so much fun, I never wanted it to end.