Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Day always starts with visiting Santa at Druber's Donut Shop--in Newton. The cousins all meet, sit on Santa's lap and then eat donuts--but not too many donuts because we go back to Grandma's house for brunch.

Not sure where Jeremy was and Taylor didn't want to sit with Santa this year!

WOW--they all looked at the camera. You will see, this year they did MUCH better than past years with pictures! Jaden LOVED Santa. I bet he sat on his lap 3 times this morning and hugged him more than once. who knows....

This Christmas Eve Grandma wasn't feeling well, so Steve stepped in and made biscuits and gravy and eggs for everyone. He loves to cook breakfast!

Then, we hang out all day playing games. Here we are playing Slap-Jack. I started playing this with my kids. They love it. However, to eliminate fights, I changed the rules a bit. Tyler slaps the Kings, Jaden slaps the Jacks and Paige slaps the Queens. (They don't know these aren't the real rules.) Then, we added you could slap the cards with your age on it. It entertains them, that's all that matters!!

We snack all day and the eat Chilli about 4:30 before getting ready for church at 6pm. Then, home to open PRESENTS!!

Aren't they adorable!!

The 3 girls in their dresses Grandma Balzer bought them. This is the 2nd year Grandma bought the girls dresses--she loves to do that. And, then I don't have to worry about it ! (Paige's dress is missing a flower on the front sash. We lost it in the nursery at church.)

All the cousins--after church--ready to open gifts! Some had changed clothes.

Our sweet family! The pictures turned out much better when Steve and I got down on one knee, versus towering over the kids!

It's time to open presents--we pass out all the gifts and make piles in front of the kids. Then, we go around, taking turns opening gifts and watching each other. AMAZINGLY, all the kids did GREAT this year. They waited their turn patiently!

Paige got a Princess couch and a princess blanket and pillow. She was ready for bed! She loved it. Lots of doll accessories (strollers, baby bags, bed). She LOVES to play with her dolls and purses. and all the girl cousins got matching pink and black tutus---so cute!

Jaden's favorite gift might have been the $3 used Barney lunch box!! He also got a big book of kids stories (because he loves Gma to read to him), a Hide N Seek Monkey, a transformer, Mr. Potato Head, a hot wheel race track, BIG tub of play-dough, and more.

And, Tyler loves it all!! Operation game, lots of Legos, K-state sweat suit, Nurf dart board, $10 (which is already spent on a transformer!), a Hot Wheels alarm clock (which he loves and thinks he's so big.) and more...

So, it was a fun day!! We left Newton about 10pm. The boys fell asleep on the way home, but Paige was WIDE awake. It took her another hour or so, once we got home to go to bed! I guess she was wound up! The boys slept in the basement together. Paige started there, then to our room because Santa had to work in her room :)