Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went to see grandma and then met mom and dad and Sarah for their Christmas Eve service.  I also got the secret for how to make Grandmas Christmas Cherry Bourbon cake.  Its always my favorite every year and I tried to make it - and while it tastes good it wasn't like grandmas.  Thankfully she remembered and I have to chop the cherries with the bourbon and leave the cherry juice in (putting it here for me to remember next year) 

Then we went to Pop's house for Christmas with him. He lives right on the beach and the kids were dying to get out on the water. I couldn't blame them with the really warm weather. We've had our air conditioning on the past few days. We pried the kids from the dock (his condo has a lock on the steps to the beach that residents need a key to open and Pops didn't have the key so that helped drag the kids upstairs)

After dinner we came back home and the kids tried so hard to go to sleep so Santa could get here.  Also for the first night I didn't have to reassure Norah that Krampus wasn't coming. Grandpa taught the kids about Krampus over thanksgiving and Norah had to be reassured every night that Krampus is only in Germany and that Krampus doesn't swim or ride a boat - I told her he was scared of the water and didn't have Santa's flying reindeer.  She would have to look at a world map to make sure Germany was as far away as I said.  Then after a while she started having to be reassured that Isaiah was a good boy and Krampus wasn't going to eat him.  It was sweet how worried she was about her cousin. 

 

Joel was also a little worried about being on the naughty list.  He told Brent one night before bed that it would be ok if he got coal in his stocking.  He could use the coal to make Frosty the snowman's eyes when it snows.  Sweet boy - he was preparing himself I think for it. He also fully admitted at times he should be on the naughty list.  At dinner with Pops I downloaded a naughty/nice app that scanned your finger so that you were either naughty or nice.  Joel's always came up nice and I wish I had taken a picture of the relief on his face.  He was so excited that he was yelling at all of us the whole way home because he was trying to sleep so he wasn't missed by Santa and we kept talking so he couldn't sleep.  Haha!!  I wish he had been that easy to fall asleep but he had such a hard time falling asleep and Norah had slept the whole way home so that was a quick nap for her and she was wired until real late.  So Santa didn't get to our house until much much later.

 

Colin this year wasn't so sure about Santa.  We didn't make a big deal about it - Santa fills our stockings and the rest of the presents are from us. We didn't get to go see the real Santa by the farm this year and I think next year we need to make that trip.  Colin came home from school one day after library and asked if Santa was real then why were all the Santa books in the fiction side of the library and not the nonfiction.  I never thought of it like that.  We did get to "catch" Santa on my phone that night in our family room and have a few videos of proof this year.