I wanted that for my own small family now, but it's a little harder somehow. It's just us, no novelty of long distance family. Definitely not enough snacks...I'll have to remember that for next year.
But anyway, I figured I'd better use Pinterest for what it's good for this Christmas Eve. I knew the kids would be jittery with Christmas excitement that day, so I threw together a list of 'Eve activities' we could do to pass the time from morning until night.
This was the list I came up with. The ones with the asterisk we actually did. I've linked them up if you'd like to see how they could look.
poppers with small gift *
bake a cake * (done on Christmas)
christmas eve interview * (done on Christmas)
punch *
lasagna *
We started with the Prep and Landing elves.....really I knew this wouldn't be that fun for them, but they were so darn cute! Joaquin freaked out right away because he couldn't figure it out fast enough...ugh...but we made it through and ended up taping them to the bookcase because they kept blowing them off.
Then we tried the snow globe place holders. Very easy and fun for everyone. Open ended crafts are much better for my crew.
(yes, I made the boys paint without shirts.)
While those dried, Joaquin suggested it was snack time...so we had a huge bowl of punch with ginger ale and some graham crackers and apples. Not exactly Christmas-y, but that was what we had on hand.
Now, at least we'll know who will sit where.
We played a couple of games...the favorite was Hide the Baby Jesus. One person hid the baby from our nativity around the house and everyone else had to find it.
The stencil pillow cases were a lot more work for me than I thought it would be. We used freezer paper which I ended up having to cut out. Isabela chose snowflakes and Joaquin went with a non-christmas theme of angry birds. I say we just ruined two good pillowcases, but they seemed to like them.
Daddy got home and got roped in to making the traditional lasagna dinner with Isabela. He was frustrated because we didn't have all the ingredients and wanted to go to the grocery store. I said "No way are you going there on Christmas Eve, just make do."
They ended up making one of the best lasagnas we've ever had!! The secret ingredient...some swiss cheese, along with whatever other cheese was in the fridge! I know, sounds gross, but we almost ate the entire dish which could have served twice as many.
(whoa...I need to clean those windows in the back!)
The Christmas poppers were by far the favorite activity. I gave each of the kids a toilet paper tube taped on one side and told them to search the house for little trinkets to fill up their tube. I helped Diego with his, but they really enjoyed filling those up. Then you just wrap them and tie the ends.
We had two real poppers from my aunt's house. Isabela and I opened those. Everyone else got the homemade version.
Diego was thrilled that his included a real 'sharp' (pencil sharpener). He also got a furry mouse which I pulled out by the tail and it looked like a real dead mouse!
I was up for some family pictures after our dessert of vanilla ice cream and homemade whipped cream. (By the way, that is SO easy to make...we've been having it way too much now!)
Will I ever get a non-blurry, beautiful, sparkling lights, Christmas Eve picture like I hope for? Outlook not so good.
The rest came out something like this......
....or this, as the kids were eager to help. (That's the table in the foreground.) They were too tired to keep it up for very long.
The Christmas Eve interview really happened Christmas morning and I missed out on Diego since he wasn't up yet, so I just asked him right now as I typed this to see what he remembered. Here were the questions:
What was your favorite Eve tradition?
Isabela: making the poppers
Joaquin: opening the poppers
Diego: eating ice cream
What do you think Santa got you?
Isabela: a stuffed animal
Joaquin: a bed that looks like a clubhouse (definitely check out that link.)
Diego: a scooter-bicycle
What did you want Santa to get you?
Isabela: a puppy
Joaquin: a bed that looks like a clubhouse
(I think someone thought he was very good this year!)
Diego: a repto-slicer (this is a made up animal something like a raptor...I like to call it a rapper-slapper which cracks Diego up.)
What was your favorite thing you ate?
Isabela: lasagna
Joaquin: punch
Diego: Santa (what?!)
What naughty thing did you do this year?
Isabela and Joaquin: woke up at 3:30am and snuck around checking out the presents
(yes, they really did that!)
Diego: nothing!
Why do we celebrate Christmas?
Isabela and Joaquin: It's Jesus' birthday!
(exhale from mom)
Diego: I don't know! (oh, no!)
These will be fun to look back on years from now to remember their funny answers. We also do a video interview on New Year's Eve with lots more questions. They're hilarious.
As the evening wore on, I whipped up this stocking for Isabela that I'd promised to make her. Yes, Christmas Eve I was still sewing while the kids watched Home Alone 3.
But we LOVE this stocking. It's lined with red fleece and has a polar bear print that she picked out in her favorite color: blue. Lots of room for little gifts in there, too!
And so the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.
The kids all slept in one room together....the door was wide open with a view of the chimney in case they heard any noise in the night. Luckily, Santa snuck in before they woke at 3am to check out the goods. I heard the pitter patter of feet from my room and wondered if it were reindeer on the roof. But then I heard a chair move and saw a shadow and told them they better hightail it back to their beds or else. Surprisingly, they did, and there wasn't another peep until 7am.
I'm not sure which traditions will carry over for next year and actually make it onto the official tradition list as memories of their childhoods.
Maybe it could just be the tradition to have a new list every year?
Do you have any favorite Christmas Eve traditions?
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