Christmas Eve

The kids couldn't wait until Christmas Eve.  I was actually surprised Colin was the first person up.  He woke up yelling "its Christmas" and it wasn't long before Joel and Norah were up. I love watching them give each other their gifts. The hugs and thank yous and just joy from each of them is my favorite part of Christmas.   Joels love language is gifts - both in receiving and giving and he was so excited to give out gifts to all of us.

 Our little tree! Ha!  Our bug invested tree was out by the curb the week before. We just brought Joels tree that was in his room over.  But it made searching for gifts to give out a lot easier.  We do youngest to oldest give a gift to someone.  We take our time and then we can all see what everyone gets.

We let them start on some lego building while we cleaned up and then we headed to Blacksburg to join the rest of the family. It was the first time since Colin was 1 that we've woken up at mom and dads house on Christmas Day.

 That is the face of a boy who was so excited to watch movies on his new laptop that he downloaded before we left....only he learned the hard way that the laptop doesn't download when the top is closed...

Sarah has gotten us hooked on Sushi Go - and we played it with Angela and the boys which made it more fun.  I just watched Isaiah because he was doing well and knew what to pair with what!  I've thought of getting it for the kids but its fun that its a game we always play at Grandpa and Ma-ma-maas house. We've played rounds for hours.   But THIS time lets just say Brent trying to explain to Robbie every. single. possible. strategy. each. and. every time you Sushi Go.  It was enough to drive my sweet mom away from the table and out of the game!  It takes a lot to annoy mom! haha

 Checking the radar for Santa

 Mary has the best faces.  Thankfully one of them made it in a wedding picture - I requested it and will have to get a copy of it to post it.  Its my favorite Mary face.

This is the face! No one else can make this face.  I hope her kids get this ability because she can also move the lips up and down stuck in that position!

It was hard to get the kids in bed that night. They were so excited for the next day.  I showed Joel that Santa was in Roanoke so he better get to sleep right then!

Colin kept questioning me after we put them to bed.  "mom why are you getting out of bed? Where are you going?" I told him I needed a drink of water and then left for a long time.  I don't know if he still believes in Santa but didn't want to find out on Christmas Eve.  Santa was tired and needed to get stuff done that night but someone kept questioning it all!  I'm glad we went up early so we could just wake up and be there Christmas Day.