Christmas Eve

 With Jeff being home for good this year and a whole foot of fluffy white snow on the ground it really felt like Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve lounging around the house watching football and catching up on some naps. Then we picked up Grandma, Grandpa and GiGi and headed over to Christmas Mass at St. Thomas More.

 We got to church a half hour early and boy did we wait too long! Not only were we in the gym, we were lucky enough to snag the last row of seats in the way back. Luckily they had huge screens for closed circuit and dimmed the lights. And in reality it worked out well, Johanna was much  more comfortable with more room to sit on the floor and be entertained, she did great! After mass was over we went into the sanctuary to see the beautiful decorations. Jeff took Johanna up to see the nativity scene and her favorite, "bab-y Es-us."

 Our attempt at a family photo.

What's more traumatizing than sitting on Santa's lap? Leaving the poor thing at the altar with tons of parishioners smiling at her, poor thing. She was only up there for a split second before I realized she was not having it up there on her own! Don't you love her little dress from her Auntie Cheryl though?

 After mass we headed around the neighborhood for our traditional Christmas lights show. We only stopped at a few housed this year since we were all super hungry, but we made sure to stop at the good ones.

 We got out of the car so Johanna could get a real good look at everything, she was oo'ing and ahh'ing the whole time.

 After the lights we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas Eve dinner. The first thing we did was stop to see the Christmas tree. Look at all the gifts! Between Grandma, Grandpa, GiGi, Russ, Kara, Jeff, myself, Tyler, Nathan, Johanna and Johnathan the tree was loaded with goodies. I've never seen more presents in my life!

 Johanna was overwhelmed.

 We told her she got to pick one gift from Santa to open.

She had a hard time choosing just one...

 For dinner we had an amazing Mexican assortment; spanish rice, chicken enchiladas and pulled beef tacos. Yum!

Sticking with our theme, for dessert I made one of my favorite (and sinfully easy) dishes, cheesecake sopapilla.  

 After we were all good and full we each opened a gift. Lori surprised Jeff and had an old family photo blown up and mounted. The picture is of Jeff's Great-Great Uncle who worked on an oil rig just outside of Santa Maria, California. How cool is that?! He is going to hang it up in his office.

 Johanna loves opening presents! We let her open a few, then a few more of JJ's.

 I got a bottle of Johanna wine... GiGi found it at the liquor store and had to get it, look they even spelled her name right! I'm excited to try it in a few months, we will have to bring it to the hospital for our birthing celebration!

 Johanna got a beautiful little jewelry box and of course was obsessed with trying to pull the ballerina off. The box plays a song from the Swan Princess and will be great for all her little bracelets, thanks Grandma!

 We stayed up extra late at Grandma and Grandpa's then finally decided to head home after Johanna started to fall asleep on the floor on top of some squishy blankets. Look, our Charlie Brown tree made it all the way to Christmas!

This year Jeff and I each got big gifts (Jeff is getting PRK eye surgery and I have some furniture from Lazy Boy on the way.) We decided to do stockings this year and call it good. We each went into separate rooms to stuff each others stockings then hung them on the mantle. That night I could barely sleep I was so excited for Peanut to wake up and open all of her presents and enjoy the day. I think Christmas is more fun now as a Mommy than it was even as a child!