christmas eve festivities

Well, we had over both our immediate families for Christmas Eve.  As our guests arrived, the present piles got bigger and bigger.  We never open presents until after we eat.  We had the traditional spiral baked ham (I wanted to do a filet of beef, but it was WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!!!), coleslaw, green beans almondine, corn, mashed potatoes & gravy, rolls and salad.  The ham was a little overdone (SJ walked into the kitchen and asked my husband why we were making bacon-LOL!), but everything was still delicious. 

We always start with the youngest to begin the gift opening.  That is always SJ. SJ got some Lego's and a few gift cards.  As soon as he was done opening his presents, he took off to his room to build them.  After SJ, it was Bob's turn.  He also got some Lego's and gift cards too.  Then we moved on to our nephew, my sister, I, my brother-in-law, my husband, my sister-in-laws, my parents and then my sister-in-law's mother-in-law. 

SJ was upstairs for a while building his Lego's, while Bob was playing video games with our teenage nephew.  It was a lovely night for the adults.  We had great conversation, good food, good drinks and a lot of laughs.  When all of our guests left except our overnight guests (my parents and Uncle Greg), SJ told me that he was going to sleep in Bob's room.  He had already set up his sleeping bag and pillow in Bob's room.  Of course, he had his bin of plushies too!  The boys had put on their new Christmas pajamas (another yearly tradition) and I had them sprinkle the reindeer dust on the front walkway.  They went to bed around 10 p.m.  I told them not to go downstairs in the morning until they woke my husband and me up.  They aren't allowed to get us up before 6:30 a.m.  I thought since they went to bed so late they might have slept in until 8:00 a.m.  No such luck!  They were up at 6:34 a.m.