A busy Christmas Eve!

We started our Christmas Eve by baking some sugar cookies to decorate in the afternoon.  They boys did a fairly good job helping, although they (...Olivier...) got a lot of flour on their clothes.  Thankfully flour is an easy one to deal with!  As they lost interest in that, it was outside to burn some of that endless energy!  Grandma and Grandpa arrived, follow by Uncle David, Natalie and Rhys, follow by Aunt Michelle (and they argued who was most excited to see her!).  

After some lunch, Rhys took a nap and the other kiddos watched movies.  As those winded down it was time to color!  Oddly they were all into it except for Mason who just wanted to hog all the colors.  

Once Rhys was awake and ready to play, the kids decorated the sugar cookies.  It started as a somewhat controlled activity and in the end we ended up with some cookies that had more frosting and sprinkles than cookie.  No joke!  I didn't get any full after photos but if you look at Olivier's plate you can get an idea of what was starting to happen.  Apparently cookies needed a frosting bath.  Or as David suggested, maybe they wanted to them to be fully covered like the pink animal crackers.

 They were asking quite often when we were going to open gifts.  They played outside for a bit and we got dinner ready for a very early dinner.  Oddly after dinner the questions about present time seemed to slow.  Once it was asked once though, they all suddenly remembered!  They started out with stocking from Grandma and Grandpa.

 Then the gifts began.  I lost track along the way and stopped taking photos, trying to keep it to a somewhat organized craziness.  It went well and the kids were very excited!

A great way to start of a very Merry Christmas!  We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!