Christmas Eve

We were home for Christmas this year and it was so nice! I have such fond memories of Christmas growing up, especially the little traditions that really made it special. It's really important to me to pass that sense of continuity on to my kids so I LOVED being at our house, with our little family following our traditions. Plus, Sophie is old enough to really get what is going on. She knows that Santa comes (first time we told her about him, she said, "I'm gonna be shy for him"). She gets how fun presents are. And she is OBSESSED with Rudolph (she can sing the song, loves the show and carries an imaginary Rudolph around in her clutched little fist). I think I was even more excited than she was to see what Christmas morning would be like.

We made Grandma Jane's special sugar cookies to leave for Santa. Sophie was so excited to be using Grandma Jane's recipe - she insisted we call and say thank you. We made the dough first thing in the morning (well, Nate and Sophie did - I didn't touch the stuff because I wanted them to be good). :
And got out the special Christmas cookie cutters, icing and sprinkles after Sophie's nap:
While we waited for the cookies to bake and dinner to be ready, Nate and the girls followed Santa's progress online:
Sophie got to open one present and was too impatient to wait until after dinner:
Clara got an early present too:
When Sophie went upstairs to put her Dora jammies in her room, she saw the Christmas dresses I had laid out. She grabbed hers and wanted to put it on right away to "be cute for Santa". She saw Clara's and grabbed that one too because she was really excited to "match":

Sophie was very, very excited for Santa to come. The girl was positively giddy!

We had our ham and funeral potato dinner (with a plain green salad so that I could justify making homemade ranch):
We put out Santa's cookies, carrots for Rudolph and Santa's Magic Key on the front porch and then it was off to bed. We normally read Twas the NIght Before Christmas but it was bedtime - for the girls AND Mommy and Daddy! Being in charge of all those traditions and a two year old (who was coming down with a cold, I might add - TWO years in a row!!!) and a 5 month old is exhausting! I was so relieved that we got stuff done ahead of time so that Nate and I could go to bed early too. After all, the sooner we were all asleep, the sooner Santa could come!