Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve started with making cookies.  I hadn't made them the entire Christmas season and poor Santa needed something to eat!  My Aunt Joan always sent us shortbread, so in her memory and in carrying on the Phillips' tradition we made shortbread.  The girls were very helpful.  If Julia appears to be pained in this picture, well she was.  She accidentally touched the pan and got a little burn.  Thankfully she held it together enough for a quick photo and thankfully it left no more than a small red mark.  

 We added red and green sprinkles because we're pretty sure that's the way Santa likes them best.

 Bryan just worked a half day so we went and picked him up and grabbed lunch at Wingers.  Bryan set a really good example for the girls and shoved a piece of popcorn up his nose for this photo.  Apparently he does not remember Audrey shoving a popcorn kernal up her nose and my panic hoping we could get it out.  That dad is always so crazy.

 The girls loved the little outing.

 We then came home and had a quick dinner.  I have decided that I refuse to spend the majority of Christmas Eve cooking.  I have way too many other things I want to do with my night.  So we had a quick dinner and made fancy drinks to go with it.

 We then headed downtown to walk around the lights.  We did this last year and I think we are starting our own little family tradition.

 We had quite a bit of company so I think there are a few families that have this tradition.  It wasn't too cold so we were able to really walk around.  I loved getting outside for a bit and I think it was really good for the girls to run around and get some energy out of their systems.

 The moment the girls were waiting for.  They open pajamas on Christmas Eve and then I have them exchange gifts with each other.  I think it's important they think of one another and I like their gifts for one another to be separate from the craziness of Christmas morning.

 Their cute jammies.

 They prepared a plate of cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Julia wrote a nice letter to Santa and then they sprinkled "reindeer food" (oatmeal and glitter) outside for the reindeer.  Then they bounced off the walls and ran around giddy for the next little while.  Oh the excitement of Christmas cannot be beat.

I thought for sure they wouldn't sleep a wink and would be up until really late.  Audrey kept telling me how worried she was that Santa would see her if she had to leave her room to go to the bathroom in the night.  I think she is honestly afraid of the idea of Santa, a complete stranger, being in our house.  She asked me lots and lots of questions about the whole operation.  Thankfully they fell asleep very quickly and allowed Santa to work his magic.