We kicked off Christmas Eve with cinnamon rolls for breakfast before 9am mass at our church. It was technically the 4th Sunday in Advent mass, as opposed to Christmas mass, but we made it work. I actually ran into my co-worker there and the kids did great in mass and enjoyed the Nativity scene.
We came home and I did some food prep for Christmas Eve at Scott's family's house. I made a feta dip as an appetizer, a salad, and some cannoli dip for dessert. We had some down time to just relax so the boys played on iPads and we worked on some games/puzzles on the iPads. The snow was coming down pretty heavy and I was dreading the drive to Troy. We left a little after 2pm and didn't get there until 3:30. Since we saw 10+ accidents, I'd say the roads were horrible.
But, we arrived and enjoyed ourselves all evening! We did our annual gift exchange, the kids opened their gifts, the Riashi's arrived with more gifts, and then it was dinner time. Dessert, a mini piano concert by Sean, and a game of Bean Boozled (Evan's favorite) and it was time to hit the snow covered roads again.
I got us home in a little over an hour, which wasn't bad considering the roads were completely snow covered. The kids put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and they were fast asleep. Scott and I played "Santa" and then headed up to bed. We'd have another full day tomorrow.
Christmas morning Sean was up around 6:15am, but he stayed in our bed until Evan woke up at 7:30. The kids were anxious to open gifts, so we went downstairs and let them open their stockings and Santa gifts. Sean got a Lego Ninjago set and Evan got his Imaginext Batbot Extreme that he'd be asking about for months.
We took a break and let the kids play with their Santa toys while Scott and I made a nice breakfast. Mimosas and a breakfast casserole for Scott and I. I made the boys snowman pancakes with bacon. It worked out perfectly to take the break!
We resumed opening gifts and the boys were loving it! Lots of new toys and games. I loved the gifts the boys made for us at school and they did a good job hiding them under the tree and keeping it a secret until Christmas morning!
We cleaned up the living room and did more food prep for dinner with my family. We watched the Disney Christmas Parade on TV and helped the kids get their toys set up and before we knew it, it was time to shower and get ready for my parents to arrive. Their brought all their gifts in and it was round 2 for opening gifts.
We served pizza balls for an appetizer, along with cheese tortellini, cheese cubes and olives, salami, crackers, and nuts. For dinner, my mom made a lasagna and I threw together a salad and some sliced bread. It was delicious! My uncle Ron came by and ate with us. He gave the boys this awesome race track that we set up in the basement after dinner. We had cannoli dip, homemade Christmas cookies, a chocolate cake, and peppermint ice cream for dessert while playing Ticket to Ride that Sean got for Christmas. It was a really nice day!
