Christmas Eve

And the day finally arrived.  We had been counting down the days until Christmas Eve for a long time it seemed.  We were so excited that it was finally here.  A couple of days before Christmas Eve, my Mom and I had gone shopping at a little Swedish store and Siegfrieds in SLC to gather up some of the Christmas Eve foods and treats.  It was also fun to pull out all of the cookies that I had made from the freezer for Christmas Eve.  We got all dressed up and headed to my Moms house for Christmas Eve.  Here are my cute boys all dressed up and ready for Christmas Eve dinner.  Love these handsome little boys. 

It was an extra special day this year because it was Owen’s 1st Christmas Eve!!  Here is my little cutie on his first Christmas Eve.  Such a little sweetheart..

Like every year, my Mom prepared an amazing Christmas Eve dinner.  She always goes way overboard and the dinner is always spectacular.  I always feel sad once we are done eating it thinking that it will be another year before we will sit down for another Christmas Eve dinner.  We all ate and ate and ate until we popped!

 

And here is little Owen enjoying his very first Christmas dinner!   He especially loved the potatoes and gravy, the stuffing, and the Norwegian sukal. 

Here’s uncle Teddy crashing with the boys after Christmas dinner. 

Then we played a little present exchange game and we each got a little present!   It was pretty fun!

Then of course we enjoyed our tradition of Norwegian Ric Krem.  Porter was ecstatically happy that he found the almond hidden in his rice pudding. 

And here is Porter receiving his marzipan pig (traditional prize for winning the almond finding)

My Mom made sure Kaden got one as well so that he wouldn’t feel sad!

So the upstairs fireplace at my Mom’s house hasn’t worked the whole time that we have lived there.. so for a long time.  When we tried to have a fire before, the smoke would come right out and would smoke everyone out.  Paul figured out how to fix the problem by building a smoke guard.  And after that.. having a fire works perfectly.  We were all so excited to have a fire upstairs for Christmas Eve!  Here is my Mom building an amazing fire!   It was so cozy!

Then we headed home for the night to get our kids to bed but first we had to make sure that we left Santa some cookies and milk. 

Then once the kids were asleep, Paul and I got busy wrapping presents and getting everything ready for Christmas morning.  So so excited for Christmas morning and the looks on the kids faces.  And especially exciting that this will be Owen’s first Christmas morning!   And here is what our front room looked like before we headed to bed

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!