Happy Christmas Eve!

      Today was as it should be.  A day filled with fun, family, food and tradition. The day began early enough as simply enjoyed the morning and read the final note from Jingle wishing everyone well. Of course Cade and Caelin were excited since it was Christmas Eve, but their excitement would build as the day went on.  We allowed them to each open one gift from us, which was fun.  Cade opened a Skylander and Caelin opened a counting frog game.  They even seemed to be under the impression that if they asked enough times that we would breakdown and let them open all of their presents. It almost worked like a form of weird Christmas Chinese water torture.
     We held strong though and eventually headed to Gamee and Grampee's for an afternoon of decorating Christmas cookies.  It was a family affair with Cousin Andrew joining in on the fun as well.  There were plenty of cookies for the kids to eat as well as set aside for Santa.  Cade and Caelin took the decorating pretty seriously, although Caelin's favorite part seemed to be using her finger to scoop up all of the extra icing so she could eat it.  Cade had his own details on his cookies complete with hair, buttons, and even boots.
     Once the fun of cookie decorating subsided we headed over to the church for a Candlelight Christmas Eve Service.  It was a nice service filled with Christmas songs and a reading of Jesus' birth. Cade and Caelin did well during the service as they looked forward to the candle lighting at the end.  After the service we headed back home for a taco salad dinner with Gamee, Grampee, and Uncle Corey.  After dinner was picked up the kids got to make reindeer food using the ingredients Jingle had left behind: oats, sprinkles, and glitter.  Once their baggies of food were made they took them outside and sprinkled (or dumped in a pile) the contents in the yard for the reindeer (you can't forget to feed the reindeer that pull that big guy around all night as he eats cookies).
    Now that we had eaten and the reindeer food was put out, we headed inside for the annual reading of "Twas the Night before Christmas" by Daddy.  The kids watched and followed along with every word.  Next, we put out the cookies they had decorated for Santa earlier and took a few pictures.  Finally, it was time to tell Jingle "good bye" as she would fly home with Santa tonight for another year.  It was an eventful, but blessed day and now we are praying that a certain little boy (Caelin fell fast asleep within minutes of being in bed) will GO TO SLEEP!  It could be a very long night or early morning folks!