December Daily {24th}: Christmas Eve

Zac needed to be close to the stores yesterday in case there were any problems, so he and his dad went to do some last minute shopping over that way.  I used the morning to get the house tidied up, get a few things done for our buddy Tom, play with the boys, bathe the boys, and get ready for our fun filled evening.  We had a couple fun visitors stop by with goodies which was nice {Ballantynes & Huls'}.

We had the annual Christmas Eve party with my family & Hartley's-my parents hosted this year.  Our good friends Matt & Jen came to spend the evening with us too which was so fun.  Tad, Megan & kids were in town too & it was great to see & catch up with them and be amazed by their darling/brave/talented kids.  They are seriously cute-both Zac and I commented on how much we miss having them close because our kids {and us} would be able to have playdates frequently. (:  We did our fun service project first, which I don't want to divulge about on the blog as we are trying to be anonymous & it was great fun. 

Headed back to my folks for dinner {traditional roast beef tacos, rice, beans, the works, + Syd's famous slushy} and it was DELISH as usual.  We all visited together for a while and laughed a lot.  I really didn't see my children during this time at all.  Especially Beckham who is completely content to just wander around {totally doing the traditional crawl 100% of the time now!} and be loved on by whoever wants to see him-or just play with toys along the way.  Grayson played with Luke, Jaeger, and Austin, and did pretty well at sharing Grami's toys which he thinks are his.  After dinner, we played Minute to Win it games and that was hilarious.  I don't know what M&J thought of us after that, but they seemed to enjoy it & said often that they were so happy they came.  Soon we decided we needed to initiate them and Talon into the Christmas eve family by playing Rollercoaster.  It was an activity we did all together a few Christmas Eve's ago {thanks Tad for introducing us to it then}.  I think I about wet my pants during this part!  Everyone who participated {Talon, Bishop & Sister Spear, and Matt} did great, but Matt was by far the best I've ever seen at this game.  If you haven't ever played, let me know & I'll tell you how for your next big get together-or we'll play with you next time we get together! (:

The Hartley clan left after that because Landon was going to call from his mission & it was just the Pete family & M&J.  They stayed while we all opened the traditional Christmas Eve jammies from Grami & Grandpa-so cute that they do that.  There was also a great 12x12 picture of the family for each of us & the D&C resource dvds.  The three grandsons got matching Toy Story jammies & looked so adorable.  I love that.  We took the must-have pictures and then said our goodbyes to everyone and headed home.  It was such a great night with family & friends and we're so grateful for traditions like that & that M&J could spend their night with us.  So much fun!

When we got home, we prepared for Santa by setting our cookies & milk and carrots for the reindeer, along with a note to Santa that Grayson dictated.  He seemed okay about the whole Santa thing tonight, so we just went with it.  Then we said family prayer and asked if he wanted a Christmas story and he said, "no fanks, I just want to go to bed."  He went in his room, got in bed, and was out in about 3 minutes flat.  Totally tired kid.  Beckham went down about 10 & Z and I got everything ready & settled down.  About the time we were heading to bed, Tom showed up to get the stuff for Bec and we helped him wrap her other gifts & visited and laughed for over an hour.  We got to bed about 1:30 am and conked out quickly...