Christmas Eve

We traded in our sleeping in for getting up early on Christmas Eve so that we could make it to the children's Christmas Eve service.  It's something we do every year with Tiara, Avery and Dylan and this year was just a special.

Before the service there are all sorts of animals out front for the kids to get to see up close and personal. They all loved getting to pet them and Hudson was running from one to another.  

During the service the animals are used as part of the story telling and it's always pretty funny to see a real live donkey and camel walking down the aisle at church.

The kids all got a lot out of the service this year and we got a little baby Jesus to take home with us.  As soon as we arrived home the girls were trying to figure out how to add it to the nativity we already had displayed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for Daddy to get home from work and getting ready for Ryan, Heather and Rylan to come over.  After dinner with them and opening a few gifts my three spread the reindeer food in the front yard, got on their Christmas PJ's and were ready to watch our family movie.

Every year on Christmas Eve I give them what has become named the "family movie" which is a slideshow including pictures and videos from the past year set to our favorite songs of the year.  We all look forward to watching it and then the kids love to see it over and over throughout the year. It's always fun to go back and watch the old videos and see just how much they have changed.  After that they were quick to get to bed before Santa passed us by!