Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve with Team Johnson was great!! Erik and I were home with the kids all day, and just hung out with them. Then in the afternoon we had to hustle to get ready for church because if you don't get there early, you don't get a spot to sit. We were there 25 minute early and got one of the last seats in the whole church. Next year we'll have to get there 35+ minutes early just to be on the safe side. Both kids had a bag of activities to keep them occupied and quiet during the service. They colored and read a few books. The folks around us commented on how cute and well behaved they were. Whew! It was much less stressful this year than in past years when they were younger.

We then headed home for Erik to cook us a yummy dinner. Crab legs seems to be a tradition. I believe this is the 2nd or 3rd year in a row that we have done this. Myles LOVES crab! Holly... not so much. So Erik made a few fish sticks for her, and Myles even ate a few of those.

After dinner comes the exciting part... presents! This is a blend of Johnson tradition & Bietz tradition. Erik grew up opening all his gifts on Christmas eve (even Santa gifts), but my family just did one gift on Christmas eve so that we opened everything on Christmas morning. So the blend of our traditions means we open family gifts on Christmas eve, and Santa gifts on Christmas morning. It works out great! So the kids and parents took turns opening up one gift at a time, and had a blast! I think they both were happy with what they got (well, maybe not so excited about the pj's, but it was still fun to open the wrapping paper!).

We then played with the new toys for a long time before we finally told them it was time to get ready for bed. So we quickly tossed out some oats into the snow for the reindeer, and picked out cookies for Santa before going to bed. Erik and I then had a nice glass of wine and relaxed for a bit before getting everything ready for Santa to come in the morning.

It was a wonderful day & evening at home with the family! I'm already looking forward to it next year!

How cute are the kids in their Christmas outfits! I didn't even tell Myles to put his arm around Holly - he just did it on his own. What a great big brother!

During a weak moment I let the kids open one gift before dinner - Myles picked this little lego set that Holly gave him. So he followed the directions and put it together himself while Erik was cooking dinner.

And here is a picture of the yummy crab that we ate all up! Sooo good!

And now it was time to tear into the gifts! Here is Holly opening up one of the toys that we gave her. It is a mommy horse and baby.

Myles was thrilled to get yet another lego set! Sometimes I think he is a little lego crazy and only has legos on the brain!

Myles also got this electronic drum set. Yes, this was my brilliant idea. :) Both kids liked hitting the drum sticks on the drum pads.

Here is cutie Holly starting to slow down. The cute little monkey pj's next to her are the new ones that we gave her. They are so cute!