Our very own Christmas Eve

We had a fabulous quiet Christmas Eve.....just us. Sadly for Jeff we had a pretty informal Christmas Eve pizza dinner. I did make some rolls to give him some kind of semblance to Nedra's traditional Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we dressed up in some great new Nativity clothes that Saren sent and acted out the story while reading Luke 2. Hazel, once again, gave a perfect performance as Mary. Quiet and pondering. Why isn't she like that more often? Maybe I should be encouraging Mary dress ups instead of Princess dress ups.
Even Charlie was pretty into it and kept his costume on for most of it. By far his favorite part was leading his mom around as a donkey and knocking on the inn keepers doors.

And Pinky did wonderfully as Baby Jesus.

After our little pageant we gave the kids their new Christmas PJ's and put them to bed. Hazel has been so excited about Santa throughout the whole Christmas season. She didn't want to sit on his lap at the mall, but she waved to him and she talks about him all the time. It turns out that our little house elf (the "brownie") is one of Santa's helpers and has been keeping a close eye on Hazel. As a result she has been making really good decisions. She's very aware that she's being watched. On Christmas eve as I put her to bed I told her that maybe Santa would come and see how cute she looks sleeping in her new PJ's. Bad idea mom. She got a little freaked out at the idea of Santa looking at her in her bedroom (who wouldn't?) and decided that she didn't want Santa to come after all. I quickly convinced her that if we closed her door Santa wouldn't come in. She decided this was a good idea and sweetly went right to sleep.
This is when the fun began for me and Jeff. Wow, it is fun being a parent at Christmas time. That's all I'll say....... Jeff and I had a great night and even got to sneak downstairs after Santa had come to take a picture.
It all looked so magical. I had a hard time sleeping, I was so excited.