Christmas Eve

While D helped find a family for a new little one, the girls and I got ready for our traditional Christmas Eve feast. We do all of the "fancy" stuff - nice dinner, program, etc. on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day is more for lounging, playing with toys, and having appetizers. So, we prepared dinner in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be...oops...I mean, in hopes that D would make it home in time! He didn't. E set a lovely table though!: Cheers!

My attempt at the yummo potatoes that Doug learned to make in Switzerland! Gruyere cheese, cream, garlic...mmm, totally decadent and so, so good. But I will admit, D makes them better than I do. Since he was working though, I had to do my best. (Notice the lovely spiral sliced ham in the background as well.):

The 500 layer jello salad (okay, so it just feels like 500 layers), and a healthy brocolli and cauliflower salad that becomes unhealthy (and way yummier) when you add bacon and cheese!

E eating her jello salad. Now, I had to post this because after I slaved all day on this meal, all that the girls would eat is the jello salad and ham. Except A, she did try the potatoes. She's a good girl. This one, however, might make it onto the naughty list for only eating jello.

Poor D. This is what the table looked like when he finally got home and was ready to eat. We were just finishing up when he sat down. I felt bad for not waiting, but we did wait until 8:00 p.m. and I tried to call him to see his status, got his voicemail and figured it would be awhile longer so we went ahead. If I would have known he'd show up at 8:41 I'd probably have waited. Hope he enjoyed his meal! :-)

After dinner, we skyped with the Utah County Gardners. They wanted to attempt some Christmas carols with us, but that didn't work out so well so we only did a few. It was too hard to hear each other and we couldn't stay together. It was kind of funny actually. It was really great to talk to Pam's and Lisa's families, and Grammy and Grandpa of course.

Finally, settled in with our new Christmas p.j.'s!! Mom and the girls....

...and dad and the girls

Before turning in, we always open a new Christmas book and read it, and talk about the real meaning of Christmas. E has become such a little teacher. She must have awesome school and Primary teachers, because she is really starting to have a way with telling us things. You can see by this picture that she is very intent on what she is saying:

...and her audience is listening intently too!

Merry Christmas everyone! Despite our somewhat messed-up day with unplanned activities, we finally managed to get the kids in bed just after 11:00 and it's only 12:20 now and they are almost asleep, lol!