Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve....and it's time to celebrate!

After finishing up our cookies at home, we got ready and headed over to Grandma & PawPaw's house for a yummy dinner, drive to look at Christmas lights, and then back to their house to open one present. The kids were sooo excited to open their present that they really didn't want to spend more than a few minutes looking at lights around town...we'll have to figure that out for next year. We usually have a few gifts under the tree for the kids to choose from, but this year we decided to have them open their gift from Jon's parents, WaWa & Packy.

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Look at those smiles!!!

Can you tell how excited they were when they opened their presents and discovered American Girl Emily and a remote control helicopter?!?! They were soooo excited!!!

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Thank you WaWa & Packy!!!!

Once the initial excitement wore off, and we realized the helicopter had to charge for an hour, it was time to check NORAD and track Santa's progress! It was getting dark outside and we sure would hate to be up playing and miss his arrival over Georgia. ;)

We discovered we still had a couple hours, but that will go by quick!

Time to set out a little snack for the reindeer at Grandma's house!

Kate filled her plate and set it at the end of the driveway so that the reindeer could get a quick bite on their way to Griffin & Laney Grace's house across the street. Gabe decided his portion would be better off in one of the trees.

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It's been an hour!!!!!

Look at Gabe's face! He was sooo excited to see his helicopter take flight!

Gabe is learning to fly!

We had lots of fun with Grandma & PawPaw,

but if Santa is going to stop at our house tonight, we better get home and into bed!
The kids made homemade reindeer food using carrots, shredded wheat cereal, M&Ms, and sprinkles.

We started to head out the front door and Gabe had a meltdown. It was hard to understand the problem at first, but we finally got him to explain that he wanted the food in the backyard. But, Kate knows we always put it in the front yard, so she wasn't changing this year. We ended up getting a second dish and spliting the food...some in front and some in back. Problem solved!

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Last but not least....cookies and milk for Santa!!!!

Then, just before bed Kate wrote this little note to Santa all on her own!

Everything isn't spelled correctly, but I am still so amazed at her writing/reading progress this year!!! In case you can't tell, the note reads: "Can I have a Santa hat for my alligator. Dear Santa. Love Kate. Leave it under the tree." The alligator she mentions is her new stuffed Alligator, "Alli," that she got a few days ago at Okefenokee. I was so impressed with Kate's note that once she was asleep I searched the Christmas boxes until I found tiny reindeer antlers (used to be for our dog) that I left, with a note, in Kate's stocking.