Christmas Eve

It was really hard for me to get motivated this holiday due to everything going on with my Mom. My heart just broke for her that she was back in the hospital and all I wanted for Christmas was to have her back home, especially since she had to miss out on Thanksgiving. I had a hard time even being motivated to go Christmas shopping since it just seemed so trivial this year. You realize all that really matters during the holidays is health and family.

Well, we got our Christmas wish and she was released from hospital on Christmas Eve. I can't tell you how happy I was. It was all I wanted for Christmas.

Here is our Christmas Eve...

Celebrated the morning with Grammy and Papa at their house. They had us over for German pancakes and opening presents. It was a relaxed and beautiful morning and so fun for the kids to have some special time with Jason's parents.

Betty and Bob always get the most thoughtful and fun gifts for the everyone. Paisley and Roman enjoyed opening it all.

Roman loved the Speed Ball! Pretty fun to play with. I like it too!

That afternoon we headed to Church. They do a great kid friendly service. 

Then we headed to our house for Christmas eve dinner. I did a casual Italian feast of Baked Ziti. My Mom made it for dinner and we were thrilled to have our special guests from New York with the Schneider's. It was a special night of just being together and celebrating. 

 The boys loved their new slippers from our NJ family. So thoughtful and cute! 

The ladies and their new slippers

Welcome Home Nana! 

We love shopping for our nephews and niece. This year Jason found the perfect gift for Scott. A remote controlled rat. Scott knows how much I hate rats and spiders and always tries to scare me with fake ones. I knew he would love this since he could scare me with it. 

The time came to say good-bye to our Elf. Paisley gave him a kiss.

Roman made Reindeer Food at school. Such a cute idea! Love that he has school to think of all these fun things. Makes my life a lot easier. 

Sprinkling the food on the grass. 

Good Night Roman! 

The presents arrived and we were ready to go. We usually save a lot of the wrapping to do at the last minute, but we were good this year and actually had almost everything ready to go by Christmas Eve. We couldn't wait to see Roman and Paisley's reaction the next morning.