Phimages: Christmas Eve

In my mind I had imagined a nice calm, relaxing day of "family fun" for Christmas Eve... not rushing around, not stressed..... Somehow I was still out shopping at the mall at 2 PM, gifts weren't wrapped until the wee hours of the morning. It was busy! But it was still a great time. How could it not be enjoyable with four young children.

We had one final visit from our Elf, Beethoven. He somehow managed to TP our house with green and red streamers. Mommy was a bit upset as she had just cleaned the house for company (Nana and Papa) and he left mess everywhere. The kids thought it was hilarious though.

Cookie baking. Somehow my mom always managed to bake several dozen cookies in the weeks before the holidays. We had a shelf in our living room full of tins of dozens of varieties of cookies. One of my favorite memories is sitting in front of that shelf of cookie tins, spending oodles of time trying to figure out which two cookies I wanted for my dessert.

I must not be my mother's daughter. I managed to make two types of cookies on CHRISTMAS EVE.... and even then, only because my mother-in-law arrived and was happy to bake with my daughter. I guess my children will have to find something else as a "favorite memory" as the cookie baking just didn't happen!

Russian tea cakes are my favorite! The kids love these peanut butter kiss cookies!

Off to church. The kids looked so nice in their holiday outfits.... why is it so difficult to get even three of them to take a nice picture? As you can tell, Andrew was the one who spoiled it this go around! (Not to mention the absent Nathan - off camera he could be seen screaming in the hallway because he wanted to get into the craft room and wreak havoc on Elizabeth's creations)

I guess this is Andrew's interpretation of "smile so we can get this over with and head to the restaurant and then to church".... The mouth is sort of shaped like a smile, but the eyes... well.. that's a different story.

All right, fine. I guess I'll go back to the sullen look if you don't like the way I smiled....

Well, now Andrew is sort of cooperating... don't expect him to actually look at you though.... and Alex, well, he's tired of the whole thing.

Another attempt.... a better smile... sort of... I give up!

Choosing cookies for Santa. Who knew it could be so challenging. And those flowers... a thoughtful gift from son #2!

Such deliberation.

Each one of these cookies is so different. I need to focus really hard to see which one is best. And, can I please have one even though I already brushed my teeth?