Christmas Eve

The girls each had a bag of reindeer food from school, so we sprinkled some on the walkway before heading to church.  We wanted to make sure the reindeer noticed our house and had something to snack on while Santa was unloading toys!

At 5pm, we went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church.  The girls were both SO excited to get a candle!  We were excited to find our good friends, the Riders, there.  They used to go to Bethlehem, and I have missed them since they left!  The kids did good for the most part.  There was lots of squirming and wiggling around.  Ryan and Laurie had to make an early exit.  It was just too much for them since they are both so little.

After the church service, we headed to Papa and Nana's house for the Bulman family gathering. This year we had Danny and Emily, Aunt Margaret, Joy, Joel, Jason, Uncle Jimmy, Uncle Pim, John, Becky, Beth, Aaron, Bob and Linda Gumm...and of course, Papa, Nana, Amanda, and our crew.

Papa had to pull out the tractor to try to occupy Ryan.  Little man was into everything!

Morgan was all about Aunt Amanda.  She wanted to help her do everything.  Making coffee was no exception! 

We left the Bulman gathering around 8:30 and headed down to Gurney's house in Union.  They had gathered for dinner at the same time we went to the Bulman's. Sarabeth and her family had gone out to see Joey's family.  We all got back to Gurney's house about the same time.  The crowd included my mom and dad, Jason, Julie, Ian, Gurney, Sarabeth, Joey, Anna, Leah, Nick and his girlfriend Katie.  The kids were wild at this point.  They could not wait to rip into all of the presents.  And that is exactly what they did!  Paper was flying.  I honestly have no idea who gave my kids what!  There was no waiting to read gift tags!  I think Nick gave the girls Crayola craft sets.  And they all got clothes.

Ryan looked so cute in his moose Christmas jammies!

Around 10:30, we all headed outside for a Christmas tradition...fireworks.  We didn't get to shoot many (I'm sure the neighbors were grateful) because it was starting to rain.  The kids all loved it though!  Ryan wasn't scared at all.  My Pop used to love fireworks.  He would put on an awesome display every Christmas Eve.

We left for home around 11pm.  Ryan fell asleep in the van.  The girls didn't, but they were pretty wiped out...so they headed straight to bed so that Santa could come!