Daily Life with our two CRAZY girls!

Christmas Eve was a busy day. I had lots to do to prepare for the next day. We had to finish laundry, pack suitcases, make cookies for Santa, make a breakfast casserole to have in the morning, go to church that night and if that wasn't enough, we decided to go to a movie too. I wasn't planning on taking the girls to a movie, but Joni said she was taking Reesi, so I decided it would be fun for us to go too. So I rushed all morning to get everything ready and done so we could make the 2:00pm movie. Little did I know Joni was going to the 1:00 movie, but that's another story. Anyway, I worked hard to get it all done because everything had to be completely ready to go the next morning so we could be out the door by 9am after opening presents!

I hadn't paid a bit of attention to the weather outside. When we left for the movie it was raining really hard. It just kept getting harder the closer we got to the movies. I was with the girls by myself, so I had to park in the downpour and walk all 3 of us in from way out in the parking lot. Grace had a raincoat, rainboots and a long skirt on. I had jeans, rainboots and an umbrella. Lyla had a regular jacket and regular shoes. So I carried Lyla and held the umbrella. Grace just had to run for it with her raincoat. It wasn't just raining at this point. It was a full blown storm. The rain was coming down at an angle! By the time we made it inside we were soaking wet! SOAKING WET! We went to the bathrooms to ring out our clothes. I rung Grace's skirt out in the sink. Lyla's pants were all wet too but not that bad. She insisted hers were bad too. So I had Grace take her skirt and socks off and tie Lyla's jacket around her waist like a skirt. Lyla took her pants and socks off and I put my jacket on her like a dress. I just had to suffer with my dripping wet jeans. We went into the movie just like that! I draped the wet clothes on the seats in front of us to dry, which they didn't. I froze the whole time b/c I was wet but the girls were OK in the jackets. I was just glad the movie was almost completely empty! When we got out of the movie, which Joni never showed up to because she went to a different one without telling me, it was sunny outside!

When we got home I very quickly peeled potatoes and put them in a pan to cook so we could have mashed potatoes with the roast I had in the crockpot. We left for church within 30 minutes of getting home from the movie, where they had a special Christmas Eve candlelight service. I didn't have time to mash the potatoes so I just let them in the strainer while we went to church. The service was nice but when it came time to light the candles I was so nervous that Lyla was going to catch us on fire! Everyone had their own candle to hold and if you know Lyla, she has a hard time being still. I just knew her hair or Grace's skirt was going to go up in flames.

So when we got home I mashed the potatoes to go with the roast. I was trying so hard to have a nice Christmas Eve dinner. But the potatoes were not working out so well. They were more like glue then mashed potatoes. Eric said they were fine. He'll eat anything, thank goodness. I thought they were gross! The next day Julie said, "Well, yeah, you can't leave cooked potatoes like that! Duh!" Oh, well, I'll know next time!

After dinner the girls made reindeer food to leave for Santa's reindeer. It was oats, glitter and carrots. They also left chocolate chip cookies that we made earlier in the day.

After that, Eric read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "The Night Before Christmas" to the girls in the rocking chair. Half way through Grace got her foot pinched in the rocking chair and we had some drama. Can't do much around here without some drama!

Then they fed their elves and told them goodbye. The elves go back to Santa on Christmas Eve to help deliver the presents, so they were gone the next morning.

That was our Christmas Eve! As usual, I try to do too much and stress myself out. Maybe I'll learn one of these days. Luckily, the girls had a good day and they weren't stressed at all. They just kept telling me "Mom, it's Christmas Eve!".

This year was the first time we made gingerbread houses. I looked at the premade kits in the grocery store, but they were $10 each! If I only had one child I might splurge just because they are cute, but when you have to buy two of everything, I couldn't justify spending $20 on something that would be in the trash the next week. So, we made houses out of graham crackers. Joni brought a bunch of candy and leftovers from her kindergarten class so we had plenty of supplies. Lyla just kept eating the candy, which was open and had been handled by lots of random kindergarteners (yuck!) and globs of icing. Everytime I looked at her she had a mouthful of icing. Lyla wouldn't pose with her house. You can see her "posing" for me in the pictures below.