Traditions & a Good Kind of Weird

This year Christmas Eve was very. . . . odd. I had no last minute shopping to do. I had ZERO gift-wrapping left. None of the presents needed to be assembled. My cookies for Santa were already made. Christmas dinner was already in the fridge. The house was basically clean (including laundry). Yet, I felt like I should be DOING something, surely I must have forgotten something. Nope. Everything was done. Very strange, indeed. Was that "peace" that I was feeling? :) Whatever it was, I want it to always be like that on Dec. 24th. Stress-free, we kept up with all our traditions. . .

Caelleb & I made a birthday cake for Jesus (and then he licked the bowl) We went and saw the Alvin & the Chipmonks movie, which was cute. Caelleb really enjoyed it! We were able to pick up Tia late that afternoon and made it to our Christmas Eve dinner out (at the Macaroni Grill). We then headed over to The Crossing for a Christmas Eve candelight service, which was beautiful! We hadn't been to a Christmas Eve service in a few years (for various reasons) and it always seemed that something was missing. Growing up we ALWAYS went to a Christmas Eve service at our church and that experience is sort of ingrained in me. Now, as parents, we strive to keep the true meaning of Christmas at the forefront of the celebration, so (we've realized) an evening service on the 24th will be a staple in our Christmas Eve routine from now on! It was a wonderful time of worship and remembering & I'm so glad we went!
Once we got home we decorated Jesus' birthday cake, set out cookies for Santa & carrots for his reindeer, and opened our traditional-two-gifts (pajamas & ornaments).
Tia showing me her pj's (that turned out to be WAY too big)
Caelleb and his pj's. It doesn't take much to get him excited. Can you tell? :)
Tia and her "Finding Nemo" ornament
Caelleb and his "dog riding a scooter" ornament

And finally, a children's Bible version of the Christmas story
Pretty sure Bryn and I were in bed by 10pm.... a weird but WONDERFUL Christmas Eve. I'm officially adding "stress-free" to our list of Christmas Eve traditions!