Christmas Eve

I decided to spend time this morning getting food made so I could relax a little more tomorrow. Spenser kept the kids entertained by making some decorations for the Christmas tree. 

Decorations

Olivia was definitely the most into it.

We had hoped to be able to walk around the lake again like we did last year, but there was a lot of rain around. We opted to go down to the Children's Museum instead. Thomas always likes to complain that he doesn't get to go there anymore since he's in school full day, so I thought that would be fun for him.

Thomas entertained us with a little puppet show.

After getting home we decided to get going with the fondue since it always seems to take a while and we end up having to rush the rest of the night.

Everyone was ready for a bit of cheese

Thomas ready to dig in

 Olivia couldn't care less about the cheese. She's all about the chocolate!

After our bellies were full we dressed for the nativity. Thomas decided that he didn't want to be Joseph this year and opted instead for the shepherding role.

 Here he is with his sheep (animals?!)

When Zach saw us all dressing up he immediately went and found out his Buzz costume. I thought that it would be best if we didn't fight him on the issue and assumed that he would just join in. He did end up making the nativity a little difficult since all he wanted to do was put on his shoes and go out and collect halloween candy. Luckily, Thomas was good enough to fill in for his Joseph role.

 Mary and one of the angels

The whole cast

Even though the older kids are quite aware of the fact that our Christmas eve gifts are always pajamas they were still very excited to open them.

Olivia loved her Tangled PJ's

Thomas was happy with Star Wars

Once everyone was ready for bed we drove out around some nearby neighborhoods to look at the lights. There were a couple that were pretty impressive. This was something that Spense had done growing up, and we had also done when we lived in Ohio so it was nice to do it again.

We came home with an asleep Zach (which was one of the aims of the trip) and a couple of other kids who were also ready for bed. They know that the sooner they go to sleep the sooner Santa can come! After they were both in bed I realized that they hadn't left a note or milk and cookies for Santa. When Spense went upstairs to tell them they said they didn't mind. The magic had died already! Santa's helpers then got to work.