Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve - the day started out rather cold but with the sun soon out in full force, it actually was quite nice outside and at least some of the side streets started to melt a little bit!!

Evan and Kylan were up EARLY - they couldn't WAIT to play Indiana Jones on the WII - and of course the guys were up early getting ready to go ice fishing again so I relunctantly crawled out of that warm bed and faced the day!!

We took the kids to see Arthur Christmas - or was it Christmas Arthur?? I can't remember - but the movie was cute and I even enjoyed it!! The kids were great during the movie and we headed to Jamba Juice afterwards for drinks!!

Then it was time for me to get busy in the kitchen and make the punch, egg bake and get the beans ready for the next day!! Jessi had been really busy in the kitchen the day before and made this awesome turtle cheesecake!! I wish I could take credit for it but I can't!!

Before we knew it, we were off to church where we met the rest of the family minus Robby and Parker - Parker hadn't napped so Robby stayed home with him!!

After a great soup supper, I got out the guitar - I had practiced with the little ones so they could sing Away In A Manger for their parents (along with the actions!) They did pretty well but of course I had to hand the camera off to Glenn and this was the BEST picture of the ones he took - no points for him in photography!!! I also had bought bells for each of them to jingle while we all sang Jingle Bells and they LOVED doing that!!

After opening gifts from the other side of the family, Jill read The Night Before Christmas and Gary read the Christmas story from the Bible.

By this time the kids were getting whiny and crabby and we knew we had to hurry through the predictions before the meltdowns started!! GUESS WHAT???? Yours truly ACTUALLY GOT THE MOST RIGHT!!! First time ever!!! Glenn and I were SO excited (well, I was anyway!!) and then Jill told us she FORGOT to bring the frog!! I think she was really thinking that her and Robby would win again and it would just stay at her house - oh no, it's coming to OUR house for the next year and I'll have to think of the best spot for him!!

It was a great day - lots of great food, visiting and just being together!! But it was time to head back to Jessi's house to get ready for Christmas Day!!