Christmas Eve

Opening Christmas jammies at Grandma and Grandpa Cammacks

Christmas Eve finally arrived and we were glad that Brad made it to Phoenix and we could spend another year with family (and warm weather!)

The traditional Swedish dinner

Every year my parents make a dinner with flat bread and a big sausage and post roast in gravy. It is a meal my Mom's family has been doing on Christmas Eve since forever. Dessert is rice pudding (which I really like) with a hidden almond. Whoever gets the almond gets a special gift. My Mom always "rigs" the almond--she dishes up the pudding then hides it inside. Brad was the lucky recipient of the coveted treasure this time. But he decided to eat the almond before he claimed his prize! This is practically unforgivable. I told him something cheeky about not being allowed in my family anymore, you just don't eat the almond. Since Grandma Kathy is compassionate and knew who she wanted to get the prize she was kind enough to let Brad still have it.

Sisters

Brad and I (and baby William)

First Christmas Eve Book--Dad did a great job picking it out!

This is another tradition my Mom has always done. Everyone gets to unwrap a book on Christmas Eve. When Danielle and I were little we got lots of silly Christmas and fun Christmas books and as we got older more serious Christmas stories. Now we tend to get classics or whatever we are interested in at the time. While Brad was stuck in NYC he found David a book at Barnes and Noble that combined all of his favorite things--peekabo, touch and feel, and babies. We read a little bit of Luke 2 and said goodnight to one set of grandparents.

We drove back to the Cammack's and took a little detour in Moon Valley. Brad has fond memories of looking at Christmas lights in this neighborhood. Because we had our headlights off (I guess you are supposed to turn them off so everyone can enjoy the lights) another car almost ran into us. That was a little scary especially because we were in Dustin's car. We made our way back home and put David in bed. We opened Christmas jammies with Dustin, Devin, and Kent and Noelene. I was so excited to have a real pair of maternity PJ's. It was fun to be with my parents but then spend the night with Brad's. We've never done it that way before but I really enjoyed the night.