Carroll Chronicles: Christmas Eve 2013

As always, the day before Christmas is just crazy. The list of things for me to get done is longer than I possibly have time to do them in. I was a little behind this year for various reasons and "saved" all of the wrapping of Christmas presents until the bitter end. Ugh....I hate when I do that. I seriously spent the entire day wrapping and wrapping and wrapping. I just hid in my little cave upstairs and worked liked a little elf. The bottom of the tree went from being empty in the morning to being full of festively wrapped presents by the evening. The sparkle and beauty of each present complimented the holiday feeling in the air.

Because of my present wrapping frenzy we didn't even eat our Christmas Eve dinner until around 8:00 in the evening. Filet Mignon was grilled in the dark night outside and we added some Sweet Mashed potatoes, green beans, and Raspberry Ginger Ale as our beverage. What a delicious dinner and way to celebrate as a family the birth of Jesus Christ.

We gathered in the family room after dinner to hear the Christmas story read from the Bible and then read a few of our favorite Christmas books. We sang some Christmas carols and then I pulled out a surprise for the kids. I had found a box of Crackers, a British Christmas tradition. The children "pop" them open to find little treasures and trinkets. These particular Crackers had small tone bells in each cracker. With the musical score that was included with the crackers we tried to play some very basic Christmas songs. Jingle Bells was our first attempt and it sounded pretty sorry. Some of the tone bells were not in tune and the typical fast moving, upbeat song came off sounding like a funeral dirge in a minor key. We attempted a few other Christmas carols, got some good laughs out the attempts, and decided that this was very much a Christmas Eve FAIL!!! It was a good idea, but didn't turn out the way I had envisioned.

Brandon and Ashton wearing the crowns that are numbered with their corresponding tone bells. As you can see Brandon had number 3 and Ashton was number 8.

We are ready for our performance! I was the conductor who got to hold the coveted conductor's baton. I wasn't a very good conductor, we sounded awful!

And, drum roll please......the traditional Christmas jammie pictures! We went with a black and red color theme this year with the guys dressed in a comfy, casual Nike sweat ensemble and the girls dressed in flirty polka dots. We loved the red, fleece sweaters that the doggies wore.