Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started out so differently from the previous days before. Dave was home, and we were hoping to get much accomplished before heading down to my parents for Christmas Eve.

Dave woke with the birds, and had the front tires off the van by 5:30am. His goal for the day was to get the brakes done on the van for our trip to Utah. BY mid-morning the tires and rotors were off, and he was ready to make a trip to the auto parts stor to have thme turned, and swing by the dealership to pick up some replacement screws. He finished before 11:00am, an hour earlier than his goal of noon. He was very proud of himself, the nice tight brakes, and the money he'd saved by doing it himself. Way to go babe!!

I started in on laundry in preparation for the trip. Somehow I'd fallen behind, and seemed to do the same loads of laundry week after week. My goal was to have all clothes in the house clean. This would make packing easier, and start off my new year on the right foot.

After his stellar job on the brakes, Dave attcked the yard, while I continued washing, and putting away load after load of laundry. We flet good about our morning progress, and began dressing and getting ready for our Christmas Eve with family.

We enjoyed a wonderful turkey dinner at my parents and enjoyed family and conversation. The kids were antsy to open presents, and dove into their presents like they were at a glorious feast. They came away with Disney dollars from both Great-Gram and my brother and his wife, and fun gifts from Grandma & Grandpa. Daniel is now well stocked with books for the trip and the new year, Josh has a fun fuzzy Remy (Ratatouille) to cuddle with, Caleb enjoys his new GeoTrax airport, and Natalie is loving her baby doll and stroller.

After the festivities were over, and our bellies were full of peppermint ice cream, we packed up the kiddos and headed home. They were ready for bed with jammies on and sadly only two of the four fell asleep in the car. The two oldest did a last minute tracking of Santa's position on the internet, before promising to stay in their beds the entire night, and maybe sleeping in a bit for mommy & daddy. (one can only hope). Caleb was another story, as he most often is, and we spent the evening settling him down and trying to get him to sleep. Even after he was asleep he managed to wake up numerous times through the night, maybe that's why I'm so tired.

After they were all snuggled in their beds, we began our preparations for Christmas morning. I had lots of little things to wrap for the kids and Dave had a few things to assemble nad recover from the depths of our garage. We finally headed to bed around 1:30am, and I so hoped they would let me sleep in, did they, oh no...