Christmas Eve

 We got home from Camden on Christmas eve around 7pm. When we got on 540 jason and i thought...it doesn't quite feel like christmas eve yet does it? i always think most of the fun of any event is the anticipation leading up to it. SO the second we pulled into our driveway i hurried and unloaded the kids out of the car and kicked up christmas eve at our house in about 90 seconds.
i got our lamps turned on...christmas music turned up LOUD , christmas candles lit, and poured jason and i a glass of wine! :) because the kids were so good in the car i told them they could tear into the gingerbread house! ;)

 and i didn't care if they made a mess. it's christmas eve for god's sake!!!! everybody is happy!!!! :)

 time to make cookies for santa!

 getting all the reindeer food and carrots out!

 getting our mits on to get the cookies out of the oven

 liza and mccoy dancin to the christmas music! i think it turned into a wrestling match by the look of mccoy's face.

 All ready for santa!

 dear santa, thank you love, mccoy and liza.
liza wanted santa to have some healthy grapes and she wanted him to have good breath with the mints.

 gettin in some last minute trains before bed! :)

 all cleaned up and ready for bed...with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads!!!! :)
someone was ready for a photo shoot.

 while someone else....was NOT

 i sure do love all these toes and teeth!

 I was so proud of my kiddos this christmas. they were polite. they were sweet. and most importantly the were GRATEFUL. being grateful for each and every thing is SO important to me. i think it is the foundation for everything including your faith, your strength and your love. each time liza opened a gift she screamed , THANK YOU!!!!!! even before she opened it she would say, thank you meme and poppee or whoever was giving it to her. It was in our late night conversations about being grateful that liza and i talked about how grateful we were for the REAL gifts of the season. our breath. our day. our family and friends. we are grateful. truly truly grateful.