Christmas Eve Catch-up!

It's going to take me all week to catch up from the last two weeks of holiday fun, so this is the start of my attempt to document it all. I'll start with the week before Christmas and Christmas Eve.

We went to my parents house the weekend before Christmas and the Elmers got in that same weekend, so we had a full week of crazy, busy, loud fun!!

We spent the time just catching up and letting the kids play. We took the kids to a candy shop and watched them make red-hot candies, had a talent show, went to the ward Christmas party mom had planned, played games, ran wild in the gym at the church, ate a TON of yummy fun, including Dad's famous candied almonds, and ran a muck in my parents house. Of course, I forgot to take pictures most of the time.Before we put the kids to bed on Christmas Eve, they had a picnic in the basement, opened the gifts from the cousin who drew their name earlier in the week, then my mom handed out the pajamas she got for everyone. We read some stories then put the kids to bed. Addie's pants, above, and shirt, below (mom made shirts for everyone (with Casey's help) with numbers, based on when we entered the Porter Family, so the girls had those shirts and snowman pants, the boys had a top and bottom with their pajamas, but got a shirt as well.)Afterwards, Santa made an appearance to check in the kids were going to bed so they'd be asleep when he came later to bring the gifts. It was SO exciting!! I'm not one who is against Santa. I remember when I was young, Santa came to visit my sister and I one Christmas Eve. My dad was in the room with him, so we were CERTAIN it was the real Santa. I was telling Landon about our visit from Santa a few weeks before Christmas. He said "It was probably Grampy, dressed up as Santa" I assured him that Grampy was in the room with Santa. He then said it was probably my grandpa, I told him I didn't have a grandpa there. His eyes got HUGE and he said 'YOU MEAN, IT WAS THE REAL SANTA?!?!' after that, I knew we'd need a visit from Santa this Christmas. We made sure all the men in the house were present, so they'd be convinced it was the real Santa.Addie was asleep (the only one asleep) when he arrived, and slept through the first part of the excitement, until the other kids woke her up.Once she woke up, she jumped right up to hug him!Landon was excited, but nervous that if Santa knew he was awake that he wouldn't get any gifts. Once he realized it was okay to get out of bed and hug him, he rocked himself up and was there in a flash!And Grant was just happy he wasn't in bed!Once Santa got back on his sleigh, we were able to get the kids settled back down, then we had our annual Christmas Eve Fancy Dinner. This year we made these cute cloth napkins that looked like Christmas trees when folded. I took these pictures earlier, before everything was completely ready, but here's a look at our table. After dinner, we had a white elephant gift exchange, played the Christmas chimes, and had dessert (which I was in charge of, and it was a flop! Bummer!! But the green beans I was in charge of were scrumptious!!). It was a great week to lead up to Christmas!