The holidays are over...

...time to document our memories!

I know some day I'll be so glad that I have these memories recorded, but I also love that I can share them with our family.  Being away from them at the holidays is tough.  As many of my friends and I have talked about, it's tough when you grow up and the desire to create your own traditions for your children means moving on from the traditions you've had with your own parents and siblings.  I miss my family terribly at Christmas time, but experiencing all the magic of Christmas with Gavin and Riley is what it's all about - baking cookies to leave out for Santa, sprinkling the yard with reindeer food, taking pictures in front of the tree....  I'm so thankful that we get to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in Ohio with our families so that we can make these memories I will treasure forever at Christmas time in our home. 

Christmas Eve Jarrod worked until about 2, so the kids and I decorated cookies for Santa early in the morning, made some new ornaments together, and got some prep work done for Christmas dinner.  Then it was time to get a picture of our two goofballs in front of the tree...you can tell how giddy Gavin was that it was finally Christmas Eve.  I couldn't get the kid to stop being silly!

As soon as Daddy arrived home from work, we posed with the self-timer for our annual Christmas tree picture.  I tried to do it while it was still light out to help with the lighting, but that kind of back fired and the right side of these pictures is a little blown out, but still cute!  I like the pose in the first one best, but it's a little out of focus.  Too bad I couldn't get Riley to put her boots back on for them because we're left looking at her socks in the second one.

Gavin prepared the reindeer food this year at school during his holiday party, so we headed out before dinner to sprinkle it all through the yard.  Definitely need to make sure Santa and his reindeer can find our house!

Considering how bedtime has been taking longer than usual most nights with little Miss Riley, we decided to skip nap on Christmas Eve so that she'd go down easily.  Well...that didn't work out as we had planned.

While we were prepping our amazing pork dinner, she fell asleep on the couch.  :)

 

After dinner and cleaning up the kitchen, it was into our jammies we went and time to open Christmas Eve presents.  We exchange all our gifts from each other on Christmas Eve night.

Gavin wanted to know why we couldn't open presents before dinner, as soon as Jarrod was home.  I had to explain to him that it was just part of the excitement of Christmas Eve!  When I was little, we always had to wait until super late to open gifts, giving everyone a chance to arrive.  Now that it's just the four of us, we don't have anyone we're waiting on, but it still feels like the appropriate way to do things....build up the anticipation all day! 

I always make sure the kids get each other a present.  Gavin really gets the idea of picking out a gift, but not Riley just yet.  I gave her two options and let her pick...obviously she did a good job with the Legos she picked out. 

Daddy gets at least one nutcracker every year, so of course I had to pick up this R2-D2 nutcracker I found at Hobby Lobby.  It's an appropriate addition to his collection.

We spent some time before bed playing with new toys!

Then it was time for a new tradition!  A couple days before Christmas Eve, Gavin asked if he could sleep with Riley.  I knew that could be a complete disaster, but I also thought it would be a really cute tradition for Christmas Eve.  So, I didn't let him that night he asked, but after we read The Night Before Christmas, they did get to have their sleepover for Christmas Eve!

By the time bedtime rolled around, Riley had gotten quite the second wind and was super giggly.  She kept bugging Gavin and it was quite comical to listen to over the monitor.  We heard a lot of 'Rileyyyyyy, stop!  I'm trying to sleep!'  All the while, I sat on the couch getting teary eyed thinking about how big they're getting!  I still can't believe it...

After the kids were in bed, it was time to prep cinnamon rolls for the next morning.  Usually Jarrod and I do this together, but we waited too long and he was exhausted so I did it on my own before crawling into bed around 11:30 while this beautiful tree awaited us...