Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so fun! Rick, Kimbri and I got to spend the whole day together! We got up and had breakfast and just lounged around together. We did have to get a little bit of laundry done but other than that, we spent the whole morning hanging out together. Kimbri took a nap mid-morning and Rick and I just played games together. Since Rick got done with finals we've had way more time to play some games. We've probably played Phase 10 the most. It goes a lot faster with 2 people and is still really fun. In between Kimbri's naps we decided to make Christmas sugar cookies. So we did that and made cookies into Christmas trees, stockings, candy canes, snowmen, and a few stars and frosted them different colors. Kimbri sure enjoyed taste-testing the cookie dough, frosting and the final cookie when they were done!

The beginning of a ton of snow just in time for Christmas!!

Lunch time on Christmas Eve plus Kimbri's silly faces.

We also had to finish up gathering up and wrapping a few presents for each of our sibling exchanges, so we made a quick stop at Sam's Club and at the mall. On my side we had Nolan's name and on Rick's side we had Levi's name. We got Nolan a Red Robin gift card so he could take his girlfriend, Brooke, out on a free date. Rick and I have always enjoyed gift cards that we've been given because then we can go out to eat and have a free date together! So hopefully they enjoy that :) Then for Levi's gift, we got him what I think is called a capo, for his ukelele. We sure hope he enjoys that as well!

Olivia had Rick and I for the sibling gift exchange...and she went way too all out with it and got all the members of our family something! Even Garrett who isn't even born yet! That was really thoughtful of her and we appreciate it a ton! She gave us a baby gate. And that is something that we have really been wanting for when Garrett is born. Attached to it was a Cafe Rio gift card! I'm soooo excited for that:) She also got Kimbri as couple of cute outfits; one is purple and dark blue. The shirt has polka dots and a pink flower and the other one is a onsie with cute flower pants. And then she got Garrett a little red and black flannel sleeper that is so soft! I can't wait to dress him in it! On Rick's side of the sibling exchange, his sister Mindy had us. She got us a movie gift card!! We are SO excited for that! We usually just wait til it's in Red Box or sometimes we'll splurge and go to the dollar theater. Haha :-) So we are really excited to go to the 'real' movie theater together!

So this year we were going to spend the main part of Christmas Eve with my family and then drop in at the Stone's to visit them after that since last year we were at the Stone's house most of the night and then dropped in at my family's to say hi. Well, it turned out that several people were sick at the Stone's and we didn't want to risk getting sick, especially since I could be having the baby any time now. So we were just at my family's house for the night.

Things started around 6pm. Camille and Tim plus their son, Jake, spent Christmas in Utah, from Colorado, this year, so they were there along with my Grandma and Grandpa Haycock. Two of my aunts on my mom's side, Donna and Delicia and their families were in town too! So that was fun, but they ended up having to split time with other family around this area too. But it was soooo fun to see them since we didn't get to go to Louisiana for the big family get together for Thanksgiving!

We had our yearly Christmas Eve 'dinner' which was super yummy. It's not your typical dinner but more of snack-type foods. My favorite are my dad's homemade taquitos with salsa!! Yuuummmm!!!! I probably ate way too many. But it's one of the Christmas Eve favorites, in my opinion:) There was also my Grandma's homemade rolls with turkey and ham meat and cheese to make little sandwiches. And a whole lot of other types of food. Different kinds of chips and dip, mini pickles, another of my favorites, a huge variety of cookies and of course the tradition of a sherbet and sprite slushy drink! It was really yummy.

Later in the evening we did our little "Gift to the Savior" show. It is a time where you can present something you've been working on or share a an experience, etc... but mostly it is sharing our talents. For example, several people played Christmas songs, or other songs, on the piano. My little cousin, Jake played a song, Zach played one and so did Wyatt. Enoch performed a dance that Olivia had helped him learn. Rick played a song on the piano. My dad wanted me to play a Christmas hymn. And then everyone finally got my dad to sing a song, along with Wyatt and Rick. It wasn't really Christmas related or anything but rather a fun random tradition of me playing Phantom of the Opera songs and the boys all singing along. They belt it out and sing along and it's really funny! And they're actually quite good.

The rest of the evening was spent just hanging out and relaxing, spending time with family and just lounging around together. We also played a round of Tommy Right & Tommy Left. Rick got a box of popcorn and I got two Christmas dish towels. That game is a Christmas tradition that I want to continue on with our family! It was really fun to spend time with family and to get to visit with family from out of town that we don't get to see very often!

Here are a few more snapshots of Christmas Eve I took at my parents house.

Kimbri opening a present from her Uncle Zach.

She LOVES the soft purple blanket he gave her! 

Thanks Uncle Zach!