Christmas Eve highlights

Christmas Eve was a rollercoaster of fun family time. We spent most of the afternoon/evening doing a progressive dinner with my side of the family. It was fun to see everyone and their Christmas decorations at each house.

Marcos and Melody (left) started us off with some yummy appetizers at their place. They made those pinwheel sandwich things - you know, the ones you eat at weddings. They were so tasty! And apparently they're easy to assemble - never tried to make them myself. I'm going to need a recipe for those.

We made our way back to our house for the main course - Jeremy was craving some tacos so we decided to roll with it. I liked calling them "Christmas tacos" even though they were just regular tacos - it made them seem more festive that way. A little red tomato and green lettuce on top = some Christmas colors anyway, right? My family thought it was great. They commented that Mexican food tastes like Christmas because that's what we always had when we were kids growing up. So maybe we'll have Christmas tacos again next year?

We finished off our evening at Thomas & Amy's house for dessert. Amy made her fabulous old family recipe for chocolate fondue. Mmmm! It was delicious. They had all kinds of chopped fruit and angel food cake for us to dip. Although, we did not dip our fondue in the traditional dipping fashion. You see, we are all slightly paranoid of germs. Especially with children around, yes, even my OWN children! So, we each served our plate and then poured a scoop of fondue over the top of our goodies and everyone was happy.

These are the babies of the year. Ms. Bella and Mr. Mason (being held by Uncle Jordan). Aren't they cute?! And check out their blue BLUE eyes!

My favorite part of the evening, besides the food, was singing with my family. We haven't done that for a long time and it felt great to get us all singing together. We practiced a song to sing for Dad's YSA ward the following Sunday and it turned out so nice.

Here's a small taste of the enthusiasm that flowed through our car on the way home. It was 8PM. The kids knew Santa was already on his way (Norad Santa tracker said that Santa had already finished in NYC by this time). Check out those faces. Were they excited or what?!

We raced home to open our Christmas Eve gifts - new jammies!

Then ran next door to take a quick pic with all the Ward family cousins.

Sang a quick song

And then finally headed home eager for visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

We checked the Norad Santa Tracker one last time before heading up the stairs. Santa was still in Wisconson at 9PM so we'd have to wait a little bit longer, but knew he'd be there soon.

And guess what... he came!