Christmas Eve!

I love all the traditions our family has on Christmas Eve, one of my favorite days of the year as an adult and when I was a child.

Making the holiday treats:

French Mint Brownies

 

Divinity

These two had no problem cleaning out the Bosch for me.

Toffee

And a new addition (request from Marlee)…

Gingerbread Cookies

I’m loving the cows more than the gingerbread boys.

All 4 watching a movie around the ipad, you can barely spot Carter, he’s next to Clayton.

Steak, it’s whats for dinner.

One of our favorite meals all year!

steak dinner

fun sodas

PJ’s

Carter’s not sure what all the excitement is over clothes.

Pinata time…

The hanger part on the pinata broke and it was freezing outside, so we just brought it inside to finish it off.

Carter was the one who picked out the beach ball pinata.

Just kicking it…

Going to town…

The loot…

Ornaments…

The kids get ornaments based on what they’ve done during the year. It seems like the older they get, the more they pile up.

Clayton’s: globe (for getting 2nd place in the school geography bee), Payson Temple (for participating in the Payson Temple Cultural Celebration), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), flip flop (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf-swimming), lantern (camper living this summer), track/cross country (ran for schools team end of 7th grade/beginning of 8th grade), pheasant (hunting w/ Dad)

Porter’s: sea shell (CA Turley reunion), lantern (camper living this summer), flip flop (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf-swimming), golden bee (winning the school spelling be as a 6th grader), cross country (1st school sport as a 7th grader)

Marlee’s: paint pallet (craft class for 4h club at school), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), flip flop (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf-swimming), lantern (camper living this summer)

Carter’s: cow (his favorite animal), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), Las Vegas ball (Las Vegas trip for Laun’s work conf), lantern (camper living this summer), Shriners Hospital puppy (for all the hip surgeries and time he’s spent at Shriner’s)

Laun & I’s: Payson Temple (Clayton in cultural celebration on Laun’s birthday and it’s Spanish Fork City’s new temple), lantern (summer camper living), pheasant (Laun hunting w/ Clayton), sea shell (CA Turley reunion), got milk cow (Laun’s masters degree, Las Vegas ball (family trip for Laun’s work conf), IFA cow (1 year for Laun working at IFA), fish (Laun caught the biggest fish this year), pink fish (for me catching a fish on the CA boating day)

The tree is just going to keep getting fuller.

The kids playing w/ glow and the dark balloons that they got in the pinata.

Marlee loved looking for Santa on the computer to see when he will arrive in Spanish Fork and she left him and his reindeers some treats.

My favorite part of the evening was Laun reading from the scriptures of the birth of Jesus Christ and the reason we celebrate the season.

Carter decided he should hang out w/ mom and dad for awhile instead of going to bed. All the big kids slept downstairs together, I wonder if they’ll be able to fall asleep. Clayton was so excited that he couldn’t sleep and he even asked Laun for some benadryl (which he didn’t get). Laun told me I must be doing something right w/ Christmas if our teenager is that excited. Now if I can fall asleep.