Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at home, making food and watching movies. We started the day with Santa Pancakes.

Julie and Billy came over around lunch time to exchange gifts.

Then later that night, we went to Heath's mom and dad's house to celebrate Christmas with them. Heath used his new electric smoker for the first time and make cornish hens to bring to his parents' house that night. They turned out great! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of Heath using his smoker. I also didn't seem to take many pictures that evening either...

We had a great meal, and the kids had fun opening their gifts with their cousins! I tried a couple times to get them to all look at me, but it wasn't an easy task...

Then, we headed home to get ready for Santa to come!. We sprinkled reindeer food outside and left milk and cookies for Santa (and a carrot for Rudolph, of course)!

Then it was upstairs to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and go to sleep. Luckily, the kids were really tired, so they didn't put up any fight to go to sleep. Madelyn was even a little timid. I think the thought of Santa coming in our house was a little scary for her. Heath and I waited to make sure they were really asleep and started getting everything ready. We were really nervous about getting caught, so Heath worked in the basement, and I worked up in the bedroom so I could listen closely to the monitors. It wasn't as much fun as it was in past years when we worked together to get stuff put together!