Christmas Eve

One of my all time favorite family traditions is our Annual Christmas Eve celebration! We've been doing the same thing every year we've lived in Washington with the same families. Sadly the Maxfields didn't join us this year, so our numbers seemed a little sparse.

Almost every single night we were in Washington it snowed, but for some reason the flakes were the largest and the most beautiful Christmas Eve. Our Christmas Eve festivities begin with a progressive dinner of some sort, this year we started at the Christiansens and ended at my parent's home (we weren't very progressive this year only having 2 families participating). As a family we always read from the bible, or watch or act out the Nativity. Now that we are all big kids we do much less of the acting out (much to my chagrin.)

Also we have been playing the chimes every year since we were very young. With my mother being a former primary chorister extraordinaire and elementary music teacher she is the most amazingly qualified chime instructor. I need to attach a video for you to understand the full effect but every year we seem to get better and better playing our Christmas carols (even the "transplants" Josh and Mary have carried the Young tradition very well. It's amazing how much fun even adults have hitting their chime with a kitchen spoon.


Mary and Jonny taught us all how to make cake balls earlier that morning. Christmas Eve always concludes with lots of desserts and sweets. Josh and I are excited to bring this new recipe back with us to Georgia, they were so delicious!

Another Christmas Eve tradition is our white elephant gift exchange. This year's hot items were the sombrero and the Victoria's Secret red onesie.

We all took glamour shots with our gifts, here are some of the poses. We all found it amazing that my dad was the one who snatched up the Victoria Secret Red Onesie at the final seconds of the game.

Luckily for Jeffrey and I, it didn't fit him very well....uhhhh, well obviously by the pictures below it was bit snug for us also. Jeffrey and I are still negotiating the terms of these amazing pajamas. We may turn them into a traveling family outfit to keep us closely knit.