The Young and the Restless

Christmas Eve

It's no secret, I love Christmas Eve. Even more than Christmas itself. I love the traditions, the preparations, the palpable excitement and anticipation, the time carved out for family and family only. We started the day off with Christmas Eve brunch at Kneaders. We've been shopping around for a new brunch spot since Ihop just wasn't cutting it a few years ago, and I think we found it. All you can eat french toast and a fireplace hung with stockings, it was a win win. A few days before we went to lunch at Red Lobster, a gift from Grandpa Young, and then shopping to buy sibling gifts. I had to laugh because we went to a seafood restaurant and the only person that actually got seafood was Jason. Chicken strips and fries all around! It was fun being together, though. The sibling gift shopping, however, ended up being a disaster. Everyone was concerned more about what they were getting than what they were giving. We took everyone home while Jason and I finished shopping in peace and quiet and swore off sibling gifts for the next decade. We'll see if a year is enough time for us to recover. 

Thankfully Christmas Eve itself was filled with much more cheer and joy. After brunch we took the kids ice skating. It was on our bucket list but this was the only day we could find time to do it, and it ended up being perfect. I wouldn't mind if this became a new Christmas eve tradition. Everyone had a great time and it felt so festive with the lights and music, and in true Young form, there had to be a snowball fight in there at some point. 

As we were leaving we stopped at the Christmas tree farm and noticed a sign for free Christmas trees and we all convinced Jason that our Christmas would not be complete without a flocked tree in our entry way. Well, everyone but Jayden tried to convince him, because Jayden knew if we got it then he would be the one helping do all the work. And he was right, but I'm so glad to have a teenage boy to help with this kind of thing! 

We were gone so long that we had to push our big Christmas eve dinner back in order to give the turkey enough time to cook. We went ahead and did our open first pajamas, nativity, Polar Express and Santa tracker first. This was the first year in the history of forever that everyone's pajamas fit! But no, this was not the first year in forever that we managed to have a reverent nativity play. 

There was a lot of negotiating as to where everyone was going to sleep and what time they were allowed to wake up. They decided on mattresses on Kylie's floor and Jason negotiated a 6:30 wake up time. Let it be known on the record that I always side with the kids for an earlier wake up time. I have just as hard of a time sleeping anticipating their excited faces in the morning as they open gifts!  

We had to keep the spirit of Christmas alive for Ryder for as long as we can so Jason went on the roof to make some reindeer noises. By the time he finally got up there, Ryder was sound asleep. Kylie woke him up and his reaction was priceless. So glad we could add a little magic to his Christmas eve!

Someone ate all the appendages off of Santa's gingerbread cookie. Someone also felt bad and gave Santa a handful of stale popcorn to make up for it. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!