Christmas Eve we got back into College Station unpacked the car and then got dressed for church. We decided to try something different and go to the church affiliated with their school because our normal church is usually crazy on Christmas Eve. It ended up being perfect! They had little tables in the back for the kids to color, do puzzles and crafts. They were 2 of the 4 kids in the whole service and they asked them to bring the bread up for communion. Mallory did! Then we sang Christmas carols by candle light and Miles was excited because he wanted to hold a real candle and my sweet cautious Mallory held a battery operated candle.
After we ate dinner we told the kids they could open up the presents that they picked out for each other. They were SO excited! I will never forget how Mallory asked Miles if he liked his gift even before she finished looking at hers. They did great picking each other's gifts out!
Then it was time for jammies and to get ready for Santa. Well they were so wound up that they decided we needed to have a photo shoot- which of course they know their momma will love!! So we took lots of pictures in front of the tree and then had a dance party until at least 9 o'clock!
Miles left him money and a picture of himself
They left him more drawings, chocolate milk and stuff to make smores
Mallory left him a tracing of her hand
They both put an envelope with a picture and money it for us- these are from Miles
these are from Mallory
I slept with Miles in the guest room and Jeff slept with Mallory in the master bedroom. It was the only way we could figure out to sleep without them peaking at the Christmas tree when they woke up without us seeing. We each had a walkie talkie and were to wake up the others when the first person woke up. Miles and I laid in bed talking/tossing and turning for almost 2 hours because he was SO excited! Bless his little heart- he kept saying he wanted to fall asleep but he couldn't because he was SO excited! He told me next year not to tell him when Santa was coming so he wouldn't get TOO excited! So I laid there with him and rubbed his back and we practiced counting all of our numbers and letters until he finally fell asleep. I assumed that while I was getting him to sleep Jeff was finishing putting everything together and all the presents under the tree but nope- he had fallen asleep himself. So it was a late night of Jeff putting the basketball goal together and me getting all the presents out of hiding and arranging them how I wanted.
Christmas morning came and Mallory woke up Miles and I in the other room by talking thru their new walkie talkies :) I carried Miles out of the room with a blanket on his head into the master bedroom so that they both would come out to see the presents at the same time. The first thing they wanted to do once they got in the living room was to give us the presents they made. It was precious! Miles gave us both an envelope with money in it from his own piggy bank. Then after we opened our presents from them then they wanted to open Mila & Gabby's stockings. I have never met children who think of others when presents are around- but mine sure did! Then it was time for them to open presents from both of their stockings and their gifts under the tree! Santa was very organized like always and had matching stickers on their presents so they knew what presents to open at the same time- very efficient if you ask me :)
Then we lead them out to the garage for the presents from Mom & Dad! They were SO excited!! So we spent the rest of the day outside playing basketball, using the silly string they got, in the hot tub and just spending great family time together! It was perfect!!
We had bought tickets to Santa's Wonderland and hadn't had a chance to use them yet so I thought Christmas night would be great and I had heard from many people that it was vacant last year on Christmas. So we stood in line to catch the bus for about 30 minutes when we decided it was CRAZY crowded and it probably wasn't going to be much fun when we got in. So we took 2 screaming kids back to the car and promised we would try it the next night. This still lead us to the problem of that is what I had planned for dinner so we stopped by McDonalds for a happy meal and ice cream for the kids and then picked up Chinese food for Jeff and I.
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