Twas the Night before Christmas...

...when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

It is Christmas eve and the kids are finally asleep. They were pretty excited and hard to calm down. But I can understand the excitement from the eyes of a child. And we did had a pretty exciting afternoon. After baking and preparing some yummy treats for the neighbors all morning (I made cream cheese mints, chocolate covered almonds, cinnamon sugar pretzels, reindeer cacao mix and another load of cookies), we were happy that Daddy came home early from work to join us to Christmas Eve Mass.

It was a Children's Mass from children for children and pretty nice, just very crowded. Here is a picture of us all dressed up for church:

After Mass we distributed our treats to the neighbors and then made sure to sprinkle some reindeer food in the yard so that Santa will find his way to us. We also put the milk and cookies out for him and a carrot for his reindeers.

Of course, today was Eli's last day with us but he left us a goodbye letter saying that he'll be back next year for sure. 

Now, the gifts are all wrapped and stacked under the tree and me and the husband are enjoying a glass of wine before heading early to bed.  For sure, it will be an early morning for us.

Merry Christmas and Frohe Weihnachten to all of you!

 

Fran and Family