Christmas Eve Eve

One of my very most favorite traditions at our house is Christmas Eve Eve. This tradition started the first year Trevor and I were married and it has continued and evolved and changed a little here and there to become a very cherished night in our home.

Because we host the Christmas Eve big family dinner party every year, we found that we were missing out on that intimate family time with just our little family. We would never want to do away with the big family gathering, because it wouldn't be Christmas without our wonderul extended family, but we also needed our own time. And so every Christmas Eve Eve we fill that need and here is how it goes. We usually go and deliver all of our neighbor gifts, church teacher gifts, scout leader gifts, friend gifts and whatever other gifts we have laying around. This takes a while, so we start in the afternoon. We then enjoy a nice candlelit family dinner complete with sparkling cider, which the kids think is such a treat. After dinner we usually finish reading our scripture advent reading by candlelight.

And then we begin the process of hauling the mattresses downstairs. We get all set up, turn on the lights of the tree and snuggle down to read Christmas books and watch Christmas movies. The kids jump around on the mattresses like crazies and have so much fun sleeping all together. I love love love this tradition, but secretly really like to sleep in my comfortable bed upstairs. Last year, after everyone had fallen asleep, I snuck upstairs to sleep in my own bed. At about 5 in the morning I started to sneak back downstairs to crawl back into position and nobody would ever need to know I had left. This was a great idea until I totally fell down the stairs and totally tweaked my shoulder! Trevor was the only one who heard my fall and after he made sure I was OK, he laughed about it all day long. I don't think I will be doing any sneaking around this year! When we get up the kids start to jump around on the mattresses like crazies again, we enjoy a yummy breakfast of cinnamon and orange rolls and then begin our preparation for the big Christmas Eve party.
It's just fun.
It's just crazy.
It's just us.
It's just Christmas Eve Eve in the Allred house!