Christmas Eve

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Aaron and I too the day off on Christmas Eve and the day passed in a whirlwind! Lots of time spent in the kitchen preparing our Christmas Eve dinner and Aaron worked on a few more projects around the house. At last, evening arrived and it was time to celebrate!

We started by exchanging the gifts that each child picked out for everyone. It is so sweet to see the things they think of for each person. For me, the gifts focused on outfitting my new home office. 
They all thoughts about Lucy, too!




They thought about Lovie and her love for coffee!


It was so sweet to watch their excitement in giving. 
This is a sweet tradition that Lovie started a few years ago and they look forward to their individual turn to go shop for their gifts, wrap them, and give them! Kudos to Lovie for making three shopping trips at Christmas!


After the gift exchange, it was time to eat. Charlie printed up menus to tell everyone what we were having. 

We had a pork roast brined in apple cider with a red cabbage and onion sauté, mashed butternut squash, cranberry sauce, and rolls. For the kids we had mac'n cheese, buttered pasta, and raspberries! 

Sissy was proud to serve her sugar cookies. They were delicious!

For dessert I made a snickerdoodle cake! I found the recipe early in the fall and knew that above all else, I wanted that for a Christmas dessert! It was super yummy with cinnamon swirls in the cake and brown sugar, cinnamon buttercream frosting!

One of the traditions that we struggled with this year was going to mass on Christmas Eve. We have always gone on Christmas Eve, but our church hasn't met in person since the start of COVID. Aaron organized our own lessons and carols service to make sure the real meaning of Christmas stayed at the center of Christmas. 


Each of the kids did a reading and were proud to do so! Singing carols together was also really nice and something I hope we can do again. 


How cute are these two!


Sissy was eager to get her pajamas on so Santa could come!

This year we left out hot chocolate for Santa. Charlie loves hot chocolate and thought maybe Santa would enjoy it too. Sarah Graves wasn't sold, so they left a note asking Santa to choose if he prefers hot chocolate. Santa said he liked the hot chocolate and was thankful for anything. 

 

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