Christmas Eve

Before I share the unwrapping of presents on Christmas Eve, I thought I would share these two snapshots.  I spent the better part of the last week baking in the kitchen: rolls, bran muffins, oatmeal bread, caramels, cookies, monkey bread, and birthday cake for Jesus.  Yep, I lost track of how much butter, sugar, eggs, and flour I went through.  Anyway, one afternoon Caleb was playing the Wii in the school area, which is right off the kitchen (woot), and I just had to steal this moment.  Gosh, I love that boy!  

And then throughout all that mixing and chaos, I did manage to snap a photo of my eager beaver little helper.  She even gave up playing outside to help me with the cookies.

So Christmas Eve afternoon, we headed to church for service.  And then we drove over to my sister's in-law's house. All of the extended family gather together on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts.  My brother-in-laws Aunt, Uncle and cousins were also there.  So we had 6 precious little ones and a bunch of big kids grownups to tear into presents.

My brother-in-law's father, Phil, is a retired post man.

Oh, and yes you're seeing that right...the presents spilled out from under the tree and into the next room!

Wrapping paper went flying everywhere. And although she took her sweet time, Ashtyn successfully opened her presents.

There was lots of pink and sparkles since the girls outnumbered the boys 4-2.

This was one of many bags filled with wrapping paper.

Caleb got a Lego set and immediately began putting it together.

Just as we were thinking that we should be heading home (it's an hour and a half drive), Patrick noticed that one little munchkin was missing, yet he thought he heard something in the bathroom.  Well, wouldn't you know that little Ashtyn managed to lock herself in there!  She was completely unrattled as the men figured out a way to pry the lock open.  Oh, what a way to end the night!

After the long drive home, we spread our own gifts under the tree.  This little reindeer was a gift tag/ornament  my sister made me last year.

I'll be back with the photos from Christmas Day in a separate post.  We celebrated from waaay before sun up to well after sundown, which translates to a lot of fun and a ton of images.