The REAL Christmas Eve!

This picture is supposed to come later in the line up, but blogger says it goes here, so whatever. These are some luminaries we made and lined up along our street. There are 20 of them, though you can't see them all in the picture. They looked pretty cool.

For the first time in seven years, Kevin had Christmas Eve off. We took advantage of that and went to Perkin's for breakfast. Never having eaten there for breakfast before, we weren't prepared for the GIANT portion sizes we were served! The girls each had two huuuuge pancakes. Camilla made it through 1 1/2. No one else got that far. My meal was also very large. Since I'm watching my weight I only ate half of it. The baby ate the other half. I didn't have to (in fact couldn't) eat anything else until dinner time. Even then I was not very hungry.
Anyhow, the kids each got a free "crazy cookie" with their meals. They were half chocolate chip, half sugar cookie and also gigantic! FYI, I forgot to bring the camera with us, but was able to capture the cookies for you to see.

Natalia was so excited to find out today was actually the real Christmas Eve. Her sisters have been talking about Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve Eve Eve, so she probably thought it would never come!

The rest of our Christmas Eve day was fabulously low key and quiet. We visited a lady Kevin knows from work who has been in the hospital, and then played games in the basement most of the day. We also watched A Christmas Carol. Kevin just read that with Madeline and Camilla so they really enjoyed it.

For our nativity scene, Anna was Joseph and thoughtfully brought along a pacifier for the baby Jesus.

Here's the rest of the group. Anna does not like to sit with her sisters for pictures. She pretty much just refuses.

Camilla and the baby in the manger.

Here was our Christmas Eve dinner. We kept it simple and I loved not spending the whole day in the kitchen. And Natalia has been reminding me all week that we need to eat our cheetos on Christmas Eve.

Fear not. She brings you glad tidings of great joy.

This is our wise man. "But I'm a girl one."

Madeline, Camilla, and Eliza each played a song on the piano for our program. Natalia sang Mary's Lullaby. I video taped them, but neglected the still photos. Camilla showed us some great tricks she can do like this amazing-death-defying hand motion.

Isn't she just the picture of a humble shepherd(ess)?

Kevin sang "Silent Night" in Spanish while Anna reverently picked her nose.

Inspired by Camilla and Madeline's tricks, Natalia showed us some great moves as well.

Okay. First notice the cute toes in front. I think they are Eliza's. Our RS President challenged us to memorize "The Living Christ." I memorized it a line or two at a time, repeating the phrases over and over in the shower each day. I learned the whole thing by May, but since it was so much work I didn't want to forget it and continued to recite it in the shower each morning. (Yes, that is one of my few quite alone times. I don't even usually get that using the bathroom.) So, for my part of the program, I recited it from memory with pictures for each part. It was actually a really neat thing to put together. As I thought through it all day and selected the pictures for it, I really felt the power of this document. So, go ahead. Memorize it. I dare you.

Madeline did some hand stands for us in addition to her piano piece and Eliza also proved her acrobatic talents.

Now the little ones are all tucked in bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Madeline is pretty sure Santa doesn't come until after midnight, but hopefully she'll be asleep long before then. I'm pretty sure Santa likes to go to bed long before midnight.

Merry Christmas all.