Christmas Eve

Opening ONE gift before bed on Christmas eve...they each chose the one Aunt Ruthie, Uncle Jonathan, and cousin Pete sent from Maine.

The six of us at Maggiano's, one of my favorite restaurants and our Christmas Eve tradition for the past several years

We enjoyed having my mom here for a week.  On Christmas eve, we had lunch at Maggiano's (Italian food, of course...I am a Jersey girl after all).  Earlier in the day I took the kids to see MB and Jeff and their three boys -- they came back from China for Christmas and I was so happy to be able to squeeze in a visit with them!

After lunch, we just chilled a bit then went to the "family friendly" church service at 5 pm.  I missed communion b/c I was in the foyer with restless N. -- along with a few other moms of 1, 2, and 3 year olds :-).

We went home and had a simple dinner, then let the kids open one gift each and go off to bed.  Of course, they were awake until really late (although in bed) and like many moms and dads, we were up late doing last minute wrapping and getting things ready for Christmas morning.

Surprisingly, the kids slept in until 8:30 am which was really nice.  I guess that's the advantage to their not falling asleep very early.