Christmas Eve 2014

Our week of Christmas started out a little bit stressful for me -- as I ended up taking all three kids to the doctor on Monday, hoping to get all of them started on antibiotics for theirs colds/coughs/irritated eyes/ tummy aches.  Unfortunately, all of their "illnesses" were viral and we needed to let them run their course.  BUT ... I DID insist on something for Sophia's eyes, which were just plain scary to look at.  They resembled pink eye, but without the scratching.  We left with a prescription for eye drops (not fun for a 3 1/2 year old), which thankfully cleared up the redness before the holiday.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house with Steve's family.  After our traditional spaghetti and meatballs dinner, we migrated to the living room to open gifts. 

A quick family picture:

Aunt Deb made a special blanket for Sophia (her favorite colors are pink and purple; Aunt Deb did a great job picking out the fabrics!):

Modeling her new puffy vest and Frozen sanitizer:

Jack needed a little supervision at first, as he was randomly choosing various gifts (read: NOT for him) to open, but he soon got the hang of it:

Sophia opened a special case (like Sam received for her birthday a month earlier) from Grandpa.  Inside of it, Grandpa had put a lot of Grandma's old jewelry in it.  Sophia was over the moon with excitement:

(Side story:  A few days later, the girls were playing with the jewelry and I heard Sam say, "Mom ... this jewelry smells like Grandma did.  It's the same smell as a lot of purses from her up in bedroom."  With a lump in my throat, I just nodded.  I hope that she always remembers that smell -- Grandma's perfume).

Opening presents can be a very serious job:

A new fire truck!

Taking a little break from all of the presents:

Sophia got a new puffer vest too:

At the end of the gifts, the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve PJs from Steve and me. 

Sophia received button-up pajamas with pink reindeer on them:

Sam opened up soft, fleecy PJs with a scotty dog:

And Jack smirked when he opened his fleecy, footed pajamas with a polar bear on the front:

 

 

 

A gift from Grandpa: a Fathead picture for the girls' bedroom wall.  They LOVE it!

 

 

 

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Before the kids put their pajamas on, we bundled up and headed outside to sprinkle our Reindeer Food on the front lawn.  While this is normally an exciting event for the kids, Sophia was just plain tired.  She even told me that she was tired and was ready for bed (it wasn't even 8 pm yet!).  Hence, the crying from her in the photos.

 

Sophia is my sensitive child and even the slightest bit of tiredness can elicit tears from her:

 

We finally got her to sprinkle her Reindeer Food ... See that cocoa floating out of there?

This was Jack's first year doing Reindeer Food with us, so Steve had to prompt him a little:

And then ... Jack chose to eat most of it!  Yup, he ended up with glitter and cocoa all over his fingers!

As soon as the kids came back inside, we got them ready for bed.  Jack went to bed immediately, while the girls were able to stay up for a few minutes longer so that they could prepare Santa's plate of cookies.

They chose a couple sugar cookies and a couple gingerbread cookies:

And some cider for Santa:

And then once the kids were all in bed for the night and our guests had headed home, I changed into some comfortable clothes and set to work putting together some gifts from Santa!