Christmas Eve!

Once someone, named Ruth, said: I will never do house projects in December. Well, yeah, she completely forgot about that statement and guess what happened in December?  Some house projects!  Thankfully they were small!  I wish I would have taken a before picture, but a guy came and removed the old glass storm door and put in this new exterior door (it leads to our laundry room).  Loving it a lot!


The same day the guy was here installing the door I was expecting Lee's big Christmas present.  I did some errands and came back and the guy said I received something that was probably flowers.  I thought he was mistaken and that it was Lee's big present.  Well, I was quite surprised and I had received flowers from my friend Katherine!  I thought it was soo sweet and thoughtful!  Well, I guess it was from her family to my family. 


I took this picture a couple weeks later.  Aren't they so pretty? 


Lee's present did arrive and it was big!  We don't put the kids' gifts under the tree till Christmas Eve.  But I do put Lee's gifts under the tree after I wrap them.


With Christmas around the corner, the kids were out of school.  Shanna, Haley and Cal had fun making different things.  Some with recipes, some not. Haley made some playdough.


Shanna and Haley made lip balm.


They also made some cute little paper cut-outs.


We had a couple trips to Lowe's and Home Depot to get trim for the door.


The second time we went raking in December was at my friend Janet's house.  She knew we were coming, but was at work when we came. I borrowed some of her rakes so we could get the raking done in a better time and cover a little more ground.  Well, I felt really dumb when one of my kids broke one of her rakes!  And I hadn't even asked!  I felt so bad.  I picked her up a new rake and dropped it off at her house a couple days later.  Well, a day or so after that she texted me saying there was a surprise outside.  To our big surprise she had left rakes for all the kids and some super comfy socks for Lee and I.  That was so sweet of her!  And the kids are really excited to have their own rake!




I wanted to get the trim all done before Christmas Eve, but that didn't happen.  Lee did get it all up that night and I did some wood filler and caulking.  But it sure takes a while to prep the trim and paint. And it's still not done.  We'll see if I get to it this week.  I am not hopeful. But it is looking great!


A few days before Christmas we did some other neighbor visits too which is always fun.


The eve of Christmas Eve was a fun, bust day.  We finished our coconut candy just in time.  Yum!


That night we had fun at our friend's house, the Weiler's, joining them in celebrating Joseph Smith's birthday.  We ate Johnny Cake and ham (and green beans) and enjoyed caroling with them too.  Caroling is even more fun with others.  What a fun evening.  We loved being able to join in on one of their traditions. 


Since Christmas fell on a Sunday we decided to open presents and what not on Saturday-Christmas Eve.  After the Weiler's, we came home and prepared for the next day.  Even though we don't do Santa at our house (for years my kids have known about Santa...I was crushed ) I still love the idea of Santa and what he represents.  And I'm not against any Santa stories or movies!  It's part of the magic of the season.  I love this book!  I bought a copy for us this Christmas and read it to my kids Friday night.


The sheets were all in place to start setting up the presents! The kids hung another sheet to block the hallway where they slept for the night.



And they literally slept in the hallway...Shanna, Elden and Haley.  Elden could have slept on his bed but didn't want to.  They all went to bed really great. 


I stayed up way too late, but it was so fun setting everything up.  Lee and I also made the mistake of watching a movie starting around 11. 










Christmas Eve is just as fun as Christmas morning!  I also talked to some of my sisters that night too which was fun.