Christmas Eve and Day 2018

Christmas Eve fell on a Monday this year, Kenny didn’t have to go to work, and it was gorgeous out. So we decided to gather the cousins and take them out to play in City Park. They had a great time running off some energy together!

 

Later that afternoon, the whole family gathered at Erin and Jeff’s house to exchange gifts before going to our customary Christmas Eve dinner at GW Fins. We did steal-a-gift, and I finally got my massage. I did have to steal it from Jeff, though. Sorry, bro! But the two gifts of the evening were the sketch of Grammy and Bop’s house that Erin ordered and the sketch of Grammy and Bop themselves that QP did. So very special. Uncle Bill ended up with one and Nola with the other.

 

We got down to the Quarter and arrived at the restaurant with time to spare. We had two long tables in the middle of the main dining room; there were 23 of us. The kids were all pretty good, thanks in part to the technology we reluctantly put into their hands. But Kenny did help them track Santa with NORAD. Oh, and they did venture out on a field trip to Bourbon Street again, much like they did two years ago. A fun night for all!

  

  

 

After dinner, we dropped by Grandma’s cousins’ Christmas party for a bit, passed by the big light display near our house, and headed home. The boys spread reindeer food on the front lawn, changed into their pjs, and opened their gifts from Kenny and me. We tucked them into bed just after 11pm and got to work setting our their gifts. It was almost Christmas!

Both boys were up before 7am on Christmas morning. They actually came downstairs, ignored their presents, and got onto the tablet and laptop. Shocking! I guess they were doing what they normally do while they waited for us to get up. But Kenny and I were out of bed not long after they were (unfortunately), so we got our Christmas morning started.

We opened stockings first and then moved to in front of the tree. Both boys got two Lego Chima sets each as their main gifts, which they were very excited about. They also got 4 tickets to Brick Universe Lego convention (Riley) and 4 tickets to Monster Jam (Rory), new pajamas, Hot Wheels track, Treasure X, Bath Dropz and candy.

 

Once everything was opened, they immediately moved into the dining room to start building. They had almost 2 hours of Lego time before we had to go over to Nola and Nopsi’s.

We got over there just before 10:30am, and breakfast was well under way. Cub was manning the stove and cooking the last batch of eggs when we arrived. Kenny and I sat down to eat and then everyone moved into the den to open presents. The kids were ready for more!

Cub and I also realized at one point that we were wearing basically the same shoes from Toms.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. There were more presents and a yummy Christmas dinner at Grandma’s, then back to Nola and Nopsi’s to see Uncle Jeff, Aunt E, Kate, and Luke. We got home around 7:30pm and finally opened our little gifts from the boys (a family dinner table game from Riley and a wooden photo block from Rory). Such an exhausting day, but the boys were so happy.

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! Stay safe tonight, and I’ll see y’all next year.