Christmas Eve

The kids are all hyped up because the house is full of grandparents which means attention, attention, attention. This also means a little worse behavior from Eli and Maddux as their tolerance for anything less than NOW is non-existent. (With three extra adults in the house, why SHOULD they have to settle for 'no', or 'in a minute'?) That being said, everyone is having a great time. Eli played football with Grandpa Jim for extensive time both yesterday and today, and Maddux has dragged Grandma Cathie through her toys several times already.

We got working on the meatballs as soon as we got up this morning. Eli and Maddux happily helped Grandpa Jim and Grandma Cathie as they mixed the meat, added onions, worked in the eggs...the kitchen was full of chefs! Once we finished that we enjoyed a visit from Aunt Megan and Rachel. The kids engaged them in an outdoor football game as well.

Lehr had to leave early for church because he was playing, so I got the kids and myself ready and prepared to turn on a special Veggie Tales movie for them. (If you've not see "Saint Nicholas", it is AWESOME if you are trying to downplay the commercialized version of Santa...and the kids love it!) Right about this time, Grandma Cathie inadvertently cut her eye while putting in her contact lens. This resulted in a trip to urgent care, then the ER. Lehr was able to come and pick up those of us still at the house for the service, and we all met back at the house around 8PM. Grandma Cathie was fine by then, but she was sporting an eye patch, so the pirate jokes were running heavy all night.

The kids picked out a few books and we had a fire after a chili and appetizer type dinner. The kids are also allowed to open the gifts they got each other on Christmas Eve, so we followed through with that tradition. Grandma Cathie makes special 'balls' for the kids each year, so we opened that one as well. (Crepe paper wrapped in a ball shape, mixed in with a few coins, dollar bills, pieces of candy or gum, and maybe a few SMALL toys: the kids love it!) Maddux got Eli an R2D2 figure which he LOVED and Eli got Maddie a floor puzzle of the USA. She's not warmed up a whole lot to it yet, but she loves puzzles and he intends to do this one with her which will totally make her day.