Christmas Eve

My mom knitted all the kids' sweaters for Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve so that everyone else could just hang at home and do whatever. It was a lot of chaos this year it felt like. Usually we are pretty methodical about how we unwrap presents. Starting with the oldest and working our way down we all watch as each person unwraps one present and then we start the cycle over again. That way everyone can see what we each got and gratitude seems a bit better. But with the family growing the way it is and the kids being way too excited to wait 45 minutes between turns, we ended up with a free for all. It was a good night with the family.

Princess Jenna graced us with her presence.

My dad and Holly were of course dressed festively

Grandma Chris and Jenna

Kylie Mae and me

Chris and Chloe reading. One her favorite things to do.

My sisters, Sara and Jose {Megan}

My mom and Bob

I made each of the nieces and nephew a quilt for Christmas and it was fun watching their (or their parents in Shiloh and Cooper's case) reactions.

Chloe and her quilt

My mom also knitted each of the grandkids sweaters and bought matching shirts and skirts to go with. They are really cute.

Kylie, Chloe, Cooper, Jenna, and Shiloh

While we were in town I did a trade with Sara's friend Tracey who owns her own company Huchi Gear that blings out t-shirts and what-not. She added names to Casey and Jenna's stockings. My stocking isn't really conducive to that right now, so I am on the hunt for a new stocking. In exchange The Jenna Rose Collection made her a custom birth announcement keepsake frame. You can see it here. I love how they turned out, especially Jenna's. You may recognize the bow embellishment as the one that Kim Henrie made for our Christmas pictures.

Then we put all the kids in their Christmas pajamas. We tried to get one last picture before bed, but this was the best we could do with 4 tired toddlers...

Then the kiddos headed either home or to bed. One of the traditions in my family is that Santa Claus hides our presents on Christmas Eve and leaves our stocking with them so that we know they are ours. Usually all of our presents would be wrapped in the same paper with Santa on them but I spaced it this year. My mom put together this awesome written history of where this tradition started from (her Grandpa started it forever ago after not ever having Christmas when he was a child). She also included a bag of goodies of all the things that would go in the stockings when my Grandpa was young and then it got passed to my mom's generation and now to us. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift. So one last thing before bed...hide Jenna's gifts with her stocking...