Christmas Eve

For the first time in two years, we were able to all be together for Christmas this year. It was looking like Amy wasn’t going to be able to make it because of Austin, but we are able to get permission for him to come up. We ended up celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day each a day late though.

When Amy and Chris got there Emerson for some reason kept of freaking out at Chris. I don't know why, but it was really sad. He got over his fear though.

For Christmas Eve, we have some strong traditions. First we eat a delicious ham and potato meal.

Jason was the hit of the girls this night. They kept on coming over and sitting with us. It was so cute.

Then, we open up new Christmas PJ’s. This year I bought Jason’s and then bought an extra pair and made Emerson some matching PJ’s of his own.

Then we play a game called Dog of Dover. This is an obnoxious game, but it is has been a tradition in my Dad’s family for generations, so we keep it in the Christmas Eve line up. After Dog of Dover we play a White Elephant Bingo game. This is a newer tradition from the past 4 years or so. It is really fun. Then we sing Christmas carols. I think that this is my favorite part of Christmas Eve. I love singing and listening to others sing, no matter how off pitch we are and how high we start.
While we were singing, Emerson loved trying to play with Austin's face. It was so cute the he was attentive to Austin, but I wish that it was something other than his eyes that he wanted to keep on grabbing.
After singing Christmas Carols, we sit around and talk until it is time for bed. We sisters stayed up really late this year. It was fun chatting and being all together again. It kind of made me miss the old days when we all lived together, but not enough to want to go back to it permanently.

Now off to bed and hope Santa finds Emerson this year, a night late.