Have a Holly Jolly Christmas 2016

Christmas is by far my favorite time of year!  I love the glow from all of the Christmas lights and all the traditions we've kept and new traditions that we've started as a family.  It's certainly a very busy time of year, but it's worth all the craziness!  I'm always sad the day we take down the tree.

Christmas Eve is spent with the inlaws, they come up mid afternoon and we have a nice dinner (my homemade spaghetti and meatballs) and this year we decided to attend church down the street, something my MIL had been missing out on since coming to spend Christmas Eve at our house.  I was excited that Mother Nature didn't rain on our parade this year, and so we were able to do luminaries.  We got rained out the last 2 years.  It was nice that the boys are all older so they were able to help out more getting them ready.

Getting the bags prepped!

Evan helps put the candles into the bags!

Each bag gets a scoop of kitty litter and a candle

David was excited to help light them.

The luminaries all lit!  They are so pretty when the glow!

After church we got back to have the boys open their traditional Christmas pajamas.  This year they were actually excited for the ones that I chose!

Traditional Christmas Eve gift!

SANTA ONESIES!

And of course it would not be Christmas Eve without the reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Each of them got to take turns reading pages from the story!  And then it was time for bed!

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Ready for bed!

The beauty of a glowing Christmas tree!

SANTA CAME!

The boys are ALWAYS up early on Christmas morning, but our rule is they have to wait until 7am to go down stairs.  We like to give everyone a chance to sleep in a bit.  So while we wait for the grown ups to get up and get their coffees made, I take the traditional picture at the top of the stairs!

Then it's time to do their stockings and presents from Santa!  Santa leaves them a letter, which David reads every year and hides one of their gifts, leaving them clues on how to find it!  It's been a fun tradition that they look forward to every year!

The traditional scavenger hunt!

Our annual Christmas morning picture!

After Santa gifts have been opened, we warm up cinnamon rolls and have some breakfast.  The boys help sort all the gifts and then we do round 2!

The boys finding out that we are going to NYC in April to see the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway!

Then it's time to clean up, get dressed and take our traditional family portrait before the inlaws head out and we get ready for my family to arrive.  The prime rib goes into the oven and I start getting some warm appetizers ready.

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When my family arrives we do another round of gift exchanges but it's the Prime Rib dinner that everyone looks forward to!  This is my 6th Prime Rib and I think I've pretty much perfected it!

YUM!

And the evening would not be complete without our family portrait!

Family