"Pretend Christmas Eve"

Christmas eve has always been my very favorite part of the entire holiday season. This year the best part of Christmas Eve was that my whole family was willing to celebrate one night early and have a "pretend" Christmas Eve -- complete with all our favorite traditions -- so that we could spend it with them but still have Christmas morning in our own home. It meant a lot to me that they were so willing to go our of their way to share this special time with us, but also so understanding about us wanting to have some Christmas memories in our own home (not to mention eliminating so much of the stress involved in having Christmas for 6 somewhere away from home!)
This year we kicked things off with a new tradition -- "minute to win it"! Forgive the blurriness of the picture, but my camera could not deal with the supersonic speeds the kids attacked kleenex boxes with!

The only thing sillier than that was wrapping each other in whole rolls of toilet paper!

Finally, a game of 7-ll for all the kids -- definitely more noisy and chaotic than we had anticipated, but fun for all! I loved that these games were fun for both the tiny kids and the older kids. It was great to see them all enjoying each other so much!

Of course, the highlight of the evening is always presents! We couldn't wait to give Lucy hers, but she mostly wanted to hide her candy in the wrapping paper to keep it safe!

Trayson got a hug from Simon for his cool horse trailer ....

.. and Hayley has definitely taught her girls how to be adequately thrilled for each gift!

My girls were completely thrilled with all their loot ....

... but it's fairly obvious the boys will be competing with Grandpa for playtime with their fun new helicopters! Gee, I wonder who picked those out?

I totally loved capturing these shots the next morning, of all the kids gathered around and playing with their newest toys, just like every Christmas morning!