Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve the Farris side came over to celebrate and open presents.  They brought lunch of barbecue, so I didn't even have to cook.  Then we all started opening presents. Papaw Richard got to help Alex open most of her presents.

 Grandma Karyn showing off Riley's Christmas Eve pajamas that we bought him.

As Riley was opening his presents, we forgot that he was going to open a game for his new Nintendo DS system that he had not got yet.  So we quickly threw it in a bag to give it to him.  I think it really threw him off.  He hadn't asked for it, and wasn't too sure what it was.  But at least the game made more sense to him. 

Daddy started showing him how to use his new game.

 This was Alex's favorite gift.  She doesn't so much play the keyboard, but LOVES the microphone.  I think I have a little diva on my hands! Since Christmas, I have caught her several times "performing" for our carpet cleaner & furniture delivery people.  I think we will be in trouble when she actually learns some songs and start really singing.

 Just to prove she is a total diva, she loved to wear all of her new jewelry.  Of course, Aunt Kalee had to show her how! :)

The other favorite toy was the remote controlled helicopter.  We all laughed as Riley & Randy played with it about a solid hour while we opened the rest of the gifts.  It was a little hard to control and they both thought it was really funny to buzz each of us.  It felt like I had a bee buzzing around my head.  It was lots of fun until the helicopter hit the ceiling and broke one of its propellers.  Sadly that was the end of the helicopter.  We tried to glue it back together but it just couldn't keep balance and fly.

After the presents were all opened, Alex decided to return the love to Aunt Kalee.  Since Kalee made Alex pretty in all her jewelry, Alex made Kalee "pretty" with bows.  At first she just put one bow in Kalee's hair.  Then she started requesting more bows from me.  To make it worse she wouldn't take just any bow.  She was picky on which ones she took from me.

 Such a good sport! I'm sure her FSU sorority sisters would be so proud.

 Then Karyn remembered one more gift.  After her own personal experience/scare of skin cancer she is so worried about all 3 Farris men working out in the sun all the time.  So she bought them each these visors.  They were actually designed to go around the hard hats, but since they don't seem to "remember" to put them on either, maybe he will actually wear it at least when doing yard work at home.

 As the afternoon wore on, Alex started showing signs of getting sleepy, but Ryan was the one who actually decided to settle in and catch some shut eye.  It just so happened to be on Alex's pink pony.  So cute!!!

 Sadie even decided to sneak in a little "cat nap."  I'm just glad that this time it was under the tree and not in the tree which is where she went at least once a night.  Luckily no ornaments were broken in the process.

 After the Farris family left, we put the kids down for a "quick" nap before heading out to church.  Christmas Eve service is a very important tradition to me and my family.  As long as I can remember we have gone to the candlelight service at First Methodist Hurst, usually at 11pm.  One of the really special things about this service was leaving the church and knowing that it is Christmas.  But things change.  I now have little ones and we live 40 minutes from church.  These kids need to be in bed around 8pm, so we now attend the 6pm service.  Randy is not one to get overly involved in the church service.  He mostly tolerates me and knows I think it is very important in the upbringing of our children.  But this year was different.
     There was just something special about standing there and watching my five year wanting to follow along in the hymnal, all four of us going down to take communion together for the first time as a family, and then finally all four of us lighting our candles at the end of the service.  At the end of our service we all light our individual candles and sing Silent Night together.  It is truly one of the most beautiful sights, seeing our gorgeous sanctuary decorated for Christmas, with no other lights than 600 candles glowing softly.  Randy and I agreed to not let Alex light a candle yet.  But as she looked at us with pleading eyes to be a part of it all, Randy helped her light her candle.  So I held both our candles, while he held her and her candle.  I almost cried at how blessed my life is.  I have two wonderful children, a husband who loves me, and was standing  next to two of the best parents in the world, my own.  It just doesn't get any better than that.  All that and knowing it was the eve of the celebration of Christ's birth.
     After we sang, "Joy to the World", we exited the church and hurried home to tuck my babies into bed.  This year didn't involve any extra assemby, and most of the presents were already wrapped.  Amazingly Randy and I were actually crawling into bed by 10pm ready to be awaken at 7 for Santa!