Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year. I love the excitement of the holiday and it's truly the anticipation of what's to come that makes it so special. We always have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner that we've had ever since I was a kid: clam chowder and special cheeses, meats and crackers. I know it probably sounds like a weird meal for Christmas Eve, but it's tradition!

We usually have canned clam chowder and then we spice it up by adding onion, celery, crab meat, extra clams and things like that. But this year my mom wanted to try making clam chowder from scratch. It turned out really well, but it tasted different from what I'm used to, so I don't think I liked it quite as well. It was still a really good soup, though.

After dinner we gathered close to the tree and read the Christmas story from the Bible (a favorite tradition of the kids). Then we sang some songs, played a few songs on my mom's handbells, read 'Twas the Night before Christmas and then had the kids sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn and set some milk and cookies out for Santa. 

Listening to Christmas stories:

Sharon was able to meet Chandra's new boyfriend, Joe. He's a big guy of 6'4" and she's a little gal of almost 5', so seeing the two of them side-by-side was comical.

In these pictures Sharon is trying to do pull-ups on Joe's outstretched arm. The pictures are kind of blurry from all the movement, but they make me laugh (especially the second one).

I call this next picture "strike a pose" and the one after that "small, but mighty." ;)

Cuties!

Chandra had "ugly Christmas sweater day" at her work, so she went out and bought this getup. She couldn't find a sweater, but thought this cat shirt would suffice. Chan had some last minute Christmas shopping to do after work, so she went in her crazy outfit. She said someone in the checkout line said, "Well, don't you look like a little Christmas elf?!" I thought that was funny.