::Christmas Eve::

Earlier in the week, we made "reindeer food" to sprinkle on the front lawn on Christmas Eve.  This consists of oatmeal (for the reindeer to eat) and glitter (which shines at night and guides Santa to our house).  Cash had made a batch of it at preschool last year and I just thought it was such a cute idea, we had to do it this year too!!  Clara is old enough this year to "get" it all.  Right before we headed to Nana and Grandpa's we went out and spread our Reindeer Food on the front lawn. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The excitement of Christmas had really been brewing all morning.  The magic of Christmas was palpable.  Kids eager to tear open presents that had been staring at them from under the trees for weeks.  Finally it was time to begin the festivities with cousins!  I can remember Christmas at my Grandma and Grandpa Spaulding's house as a kid.  My Dad is one of 4 and each has 2 or 3 kids, meaning that cousins were a plenty!  It was so much fun having everyone together all dressed up waiting to see what new toy we were going to rip open.  My kids are lucky enough to experience this kind of excitement. 

The kid table gets cuter and cuter every year!  The conversations between these four are hilarious...

Nana has made Christmas for our family so much fun.  After moving from California where we would literally start Christmas Eve off with my Great-Grandma and being full force until Christmas Night, it was strange to just stay home with the five of us.  Over time we have kept old traditions alive (like lefse making and stroganoff on Christmas Eve night dinner) and learned new traditions that can now be passed down to the kids.  We now play the pickle game every Christmas.  If you aren't familiar with this game, it's a sort of "hide the pickle" game.  Whoever finds it, wins a prize.  Being the seasoned Nana that Mom is, she gets a prize for every kid playing :)  Not to brag...but both of my kiddies won their game ;)

 

 

I am rarely in pictures...So I had Andrea snap a quick one of my sweet thing and I.

 

 

This was the BEST picture of these three monkeys I could get!!  Pretty much sums them all up though!

 

Mom always does such a festive job of dressing up the table!! 

Sitting so patiently waiting for their stockings to be passed to them!  My Grandma Marvel would always wrap our stocking stuffers that were from her and my Grandpa.  This is another tradition that has been woven into our traditions.  It started out to take up more time when it was just the 5 of us, but has just stuck over time.  I know it's a time consuming tradition but I think everyone likes it!

 

New cross-country ski's for Sis!!

 

Another fantastic idea Nana came up with...silly string!!  It lasted all of 30 seconds...but everyone was laughing like crazy!!  Look at this tough Montana dude...outside in 10* weather with no shoes!

 

 

This is Brandon, Andrea's boyfriend...welcome to the blog, Brando!

The kids in their new jammies from Nana and Grandpa...please excuse the girl on the left...she was NOT happy about sitting with the boys and getting her picture taken!!

And to finish of this post is a little comedy for you!!  Saralyn thought of this idea months and months ago, to buy adult footie jams for Andrea, her and I and surprise my Mom with them!  She was shocked coming downstairs after giving the kids baths' to find us looking like idiots!  I believe after the laughter died down her response was that she was "embarrassed for us!" ha!!  We decided that an "awkward family photo" was needed!  We drug in Dad and Angus into the pic just to make it that much more weird!!