christmas eve jammies

as per our tradition, everyone got to open their "christmas eve" present - jammies! even though the older kids know what is inside their gifts, they still get pretty excited to open them.  they were so excited that i couldn't get them to hold still for pictures - well, madelyn and mason each held still for half a second. this year all of the kids' jammies had orange in them.

daddy and i get jammies too.

one more of madelyn in her dress.

maddux showing his 'secret' orange.

 and a few shots in their new jammies in front of the tree.  i think that is their "excited" pose?

madelyn didn't have shoes on so daddy carried her out to throw "reindeer food" on the grass.

we have been reading a veggie tales countdown to christmas lift-a-flap book each night and i asked matt to get a few pictures of us. the kids are already asking if we can read it again next year.

even though we have told the kids about santa, we still do whatever parts they think are fun.  so they each picked a cookie for santa/daddy to put on our "santa's cookies" plate.  we did have a matching "santa's milk" mug, but it met an untimely end this year while drying.  but then i found this mug which i thought was an excellent replacement!

there were lots of questions about whether daddy will eat all of the cookies, will he brush his teeth before or after eating the cookies, when exactly will he eat the cookies, etc.

and then they finally went to bed and we could finish putting out the rest of the gifts and fill the stockings.  it was actually a pretty early night this year because we had nothing to build. love.