Christmas Eve fun

The morning of the 23rd started out cold and WINDY and we were happy Matt's parents and brother Vince arrived a day early to avoid the impending storm! We had some pretty dense fog the night before and it left beautiful frost crystals all over outside! Matt was on the ball and nabbed the camera to capture these awesome pictures, I just love them! Good job mister!!!


Matt and Vince took off early Christmas Eve morning hoping to come home with another deer. No luck, which I think is good since our freezer is full. Funny story...Matt thought he lost his iPod about a month ago and we were both mad about it. He looked everywhere with no luck and had just about given up. While Matt and Vince were out hunting yesterday they were at a location where Matt had shot his buck...a month ago. Vince is walking towards the truck and notices a small zip pouch and says to Matt, "hey look at this"! Matt sees and it says, "hey! Is that my iPod? Are there red headphones inside"? YES...it was his iPod that somehow fell out of the truck a month ago and survived the 20 below temps, snow and other vehicles and was found by Vince! WAHOO!!!! It totally works and there is no damage, I am just amazed!


Anyway...the rest of us just hung out and ran a few errands for last minute meal ingredients and gifts. Mia and Jenni came over so the girls could do a little gift exchange, it was pretty cute! Ella received her first Barbie and some cute bracelets and Mia received her first My Little Pony and some Princess stickers. They are so cute to watch together! Jenni spoiled me with MY OWN crocheted hat, YIPPEE!!! I think I might just sleep in it I am so excited about it! Ella couldn't keep her fingers out of the Chewy Chex Mix and carried the huge bowl to the table and munched while we finished getting ready. Dinner was planned for 5:00 and included ham, cheese potatoes, homemade rolls, jell-O salad, green salad and pumpkin roll for dessert! We invited the Titus' for dinner and they brought Justin! It was a full house with 8 adults and 6 kids. Dinner was delish and I really appreciate Maleia for bringing some of the food, it was so yummy!


After dinner we had our traditional Christmas Eve devotional. Matt read the story of Jesus' birth from Luke 2 and then we watched The Nativity. We LOVE to watch the movie on mute and listen to the song Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant. The words go PERFECTLY with the movie, it really brought the spirit into our home.


When our great company had left, it was time for the boys to do dishes and for me to HURRY and prepare the Christmas Eve gifts that I had forgotten to wrap. Our tradition is new jammies and a new Christmas ornament for each kiddo. They were so excited and Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Vince opened new jammies too! Sorry Matt...I totally dropped the ball on ours! It was a great end to an awesome day! We stayed up finishing up our wrapping and watching The Christmas Story. I will confess, I have NEVER seen that movie before! Shock, I know. I went to bed around 1:30 a.m. with excitement for the Christmas morning and hoped the kids will sleep in!