This Week in Christmasing

It’s Christmas Eve. 

9:32 p.m.

I’m exhausted. But I don’t get to go to bed yet. 

Fortunately, our kids are also pretty tuckered out and usually end up going to bed early the night before Christmas. It helps that they’ve been up since 5:40 this morning. Now I just need to give them some time to fall deep asleep so I can do Christmas things. 

Rumor has it that Santa has put together a scavenger hunt that they will have to complete to find their gift tomorrow. 

While I’m waiting, here are some of the exciting happenings from the last few days (with low-quality photographic support and weird formatting due to phone blogging):

We had an “appetizer night,” which might have to become an annual tradition. I was planning dinner one night, and I decided to just do all appetizers. We had little smokies, popcorn shrimp, a regular cheeseball, a chocolate chip cheeseball, a veggie tray, Chex mix, and muddy buddies.

Everyone was a fan except for Eva who never eats anything and then begs for food all night.

Cheeseball

Chocolate Chip Cheeseball

We had an FNO (family night out) and went downtown. We went to Temple Square to see the animated nativity at the Tabernacle.

We walked through the very small amount of lights (Temple Square normally has tons of lights at Christmas, but it’s under construction currently, so there are just a few lights).

Then we walked over to City Creek to make a donation at the Giving Machines (the kids chose to buy three ducks). 

We went to the food court and ate some French fries before heading to Eccles Theatre to see Mat and Savanna Shaw’s Christmas concert. I convinced Zoe and Eva to go by telling them we were taking them to see YouTubers. This was their first time at a concert or theatre. When Zoe saw the inside of the theatre, she said, “I didn’t know you were taking us to a fancy opera!”

The next day we went and visited my dad. He recently moved two hours away, and we hadn’t been to his new house yet. He now lives in a small town in the mountains, so it was only appropriate for us to do some sledding while we were there.

The kids had a blast! And so did Scotty…

Then suddenly it was Christmas Eve (today) and somehow it’s still Christmas Eve.

I spent all morning making foods. Pretzel Jello, Jello jigglers (I’m on Jello duty), and seafood dip. 

At noon we went to lunch at Scotty’s mom’s house. 

Cousins

Then at 4:00 we went to Scotty’s dad’s Christmas Eve party.

I think this was the first time Eva willingly talked to Santa 

When we got home, we tortured the children by making them clean up the house. We delivered a few gifts. I put together a breakfast casserole for the morning, we watched a video Amber made from our Florida vacation, and then I changed into my stretchy pants and beat Scotty at Wingspan. 

Now we’re watching the Belsnickel episode of The Office (s 9 ep 9) and waiting for Santa to arrive!