Christmas Eve at Home

Christmas Eve Day fell on a Saturday this year, so there wasn't any "rushing home from work" to consider.  There was no real need to rush at all, frankly.   That was very nice indeed!

And, over the years, it's been tradition to simplify the day by just making pizzas for supper (not even homemade - *gasp*!) and opening presents with leisure, enjoying each other's company.

The day was filled with a lot of picture-taking (I realized LATE IN THE DAY that my lens was el-smudged-O!!), sipping cappuccino, watching football, and hanging out.

When Uncle Lance arrived, he brought his favorite tradition; tiger meat.   Connor hadn't remembered trying tiger meat before (we had convinced him last time AND this time that it was meat from real tigers -  hehe), so he dug right into it with Lance.  They managed to eat about a pound of it, with crackers.

 Riggs and Ramsey had to be part of the crowd, so Ramsey brought in his new favorite toys; halved Christmas paper rolls (aka "light sabers").   His brand new favorite phrase on Christmas Eve is "I will fight you!", whereby he'd hand one saber to one of us and then we'd battle him.

 Uncle Lance is beloved by Ramsey.  Ramsey kept climbing onto his lap and giving him kisses.  He clung to him for quite a while.  I thought it was very sweet, as he doesn't get to see Uncle Lance too much, though it's been more often as of late.  :-)

As we watched our football and drank our coffees and such, the boys waited to open presents....

and waited some more....

 Finally, Nana Karen got anxious for present time and Ramsey got the first gift; a Little People farm play set.

 Connor proceeded to read off the names and then Ramsey would hand the presents to people.  They were a good team!

 The present-opening lasted for a few hours.  

Afterwards, as I was baking pizzas, and everyone else was visiting and hanging out, Connor had fun trying out his new virtual reality glasses.

 And we had to get a picture of him looking ultra cool in his new leather biker jacket and pilot shades.  Connor doesn't openly "flaunt it" too often, but when he put on the jacket and the shades, he was strutting.  He's such a card!   

We all got loads of wonderful gifts.  But, of course, the best part was being together as a family.

  At Ramsey's bed time, we put out Star Wars cookies (on his Star Wars plate of course) for Santa.

But, Ramsey didn't leave them there long.  He thought Riggs would get to them first and eat them, so one by one, he placed them on the side table.  He ate a few in the process.

Time for bed.  Time to read stories about Santa Claus, who would be coming to see him soon.  Time to say our prayers and tell Jesus "Happy Birthday" just a little bit early.

We are very blessed indeed.