Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a busy, busy day! We had the Christmas Pageant bright and early and we had to get there even brighter and earlier to get a good seat!!  This year both children were in the pageant so it was extra special. And stressful!!

Avery's class were the animals at the stable and she chose her Favorite with a capital F animal...a cat. Bless her heart it was a hot costume and it was a little too big on the bottom and a little too small on top. But she didn't care. At first. By the end of church, she was so hot that I had to take her outside. By this point she had unzipped her cat jacket and was walking around in her little undershirt!!

Will was the Inn Keeper, as discussed here.  He was front and center the whole time and was pretty funny sticking his head in and out of the Inn window.  These pics were taken without a flash and without a zoom lens so they are pretty poor but you can still see him.

Ironically, as LOUD as Will typically is, we couldn't hear a single word of the lines he said. Cracks me up. I hesitated doing this, but after practice on the Saturday before, I suggested he speak a little louder. Like I said, I hesitated because at the end of the church service on Sunday, he got to do the "Thanks be to God" with the deacon at the end of the service and let's just say it has never been said as loudly as it was the day he did it. Of course his singing was loud and joyful!!!

After his part was over, he gave me the "thumbs up or thumbs down" signal! Of course he got a thumbs up.

At one point Avery stood up and waved her little heart out at us!

My loves......

A lunch at Char-Grill and Mom and I did some browsing at TJ Maxx and Home Goods that afternoon. Our baby sitters were asleep!

As were the kids of Jonestown.....

Then Mom and Dad of course did their trip to Kohls. When she got home she realized they had left all their stockings in Beaufort so I jetted out to the stores nearby that were closing in just a few minutes, trying to find them some. Luckily, I found some at Food Lion of all places!

We had a yummy dinner, complete with Honeybaked Ham and a birthday cake for Baby Jesus.

Kisses all around!

We did a Christmas lights ride and on the way home, Santa Claus himself was walking up our road. Poor Will somehow didn't see him even though they were like 6 feet apart and Will was SOOOO upset.  We tried to go back and see him but he had already gone into a house. But that was great motivation to for the kids to quickly get ready for bed because Santa was just a few houses down!!! Uncle Matt was already ready for bed!

Then it was time for Santa's snack. Wow, he got a lot of food this year. Cookies, candy, a clementine and some BBQ potato chips (courtesy of Avery). The reindeer got some reindeer food, banana chips, carrots and of course BBQ potato chips!!

Stockings, new and old, are up!

But not before pretending they were casts!

 Looking for Santa.....the reflection of the camera flash in the glass sent them scurrying to bed!

Finally everyone was in bed! And the elves could get to work. Only one thing to put together this year so that was nice!!!