Christmas Eve

The past several years we have decided to celebrate Christmas in Baltimore because I hate traveling in winter.  Driving in snow and ice totally unnerve me! But after my brother visited in early November and then my parents were unable to come out this fall like they had planned, I was feeling a need to spend the holidays with family. With a close eye on the weather forecast and tons of prayers asking for good weather, we headed off to Cincinnati a few days before Christmas. What a joy it was to spend this special holiday with our loved ones in Ohio! The kids were thrilled to see their grandparents, cousins, and special aunt and uncles.
Since Ryan was on call Christmas Eve and couldn't be more than 30 minutes from the hospital, we grabbed all the delicious food and took it up with us to spend the evening at the Clark home. One of my favorite meals of the year is this particular dinner - filet mignon, Caesar salad, cream corn, and lots and lots of martinellis!

Grandpa Gabe's famous Caesar salad, a favorite of mine and Xander's!

Grilling up some yumminess!

This year was the first year we've ever had a kids' table and it was a hit! The kids loved just hangin' together and having their own silly little conversations.

It was kinda quiet at the adult table as we savored every bite as well as listened in on the outrageous things we heard coming from the kids' table in the other room.

After dinner it was game time! A couple years ago I had put together a program for the adults at our ward's Christmas party loaded with games, trivia, and songs. I toned it down a bit for our family Christmas Eve, with a few easier trivia questions, and we had a blast. Our first game of the night had two teams pitted against each other - they had to work together to blow up balloons, stuff them in pantyhose to make antlers, set them on a person's head, and be the first team to sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Hilarious!

Uncle Ryan vs...

Grandpa!

Of course Noah wanted in on that kind of silliness!

After a few songs and trivia, the teams raced each other to put together a Christmas tree out of cups using only one hand.

The winners! (I didn't bring enough cups, dang it, so the trees were lacking a point.)

Another fun game was the "marshmallows through the wreath and into a cup" game.  I was quite impressed with how well both teams did.

And then we had to see who had the facial talent to get a cookie from his or her forehead into his or her mouth.  Most of the kids broke the rules on this one but I don't blame them - it was hard!

After all the silliness and loud fun, Grandpa read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then we settled in to talk about what makes this evening so special. We read accounts of our Savior's birth from both the Bible and The Book of Mormon and sung a few of the beautiful Christmas carols. What a wonderful evening!

After some yummy dessert, Trifle, we headed back down to Grandma and Grandpa's. As per tradition, the kids got to open one gift, the one containing new pj's.

All ready for bed and excited that Santa will be paying a visit!