Christmas Eve

Saturday, Christmas Eve was a booked day. We had to be up early to be out of the house by 8:30am. Bright and early at 6:30am, our day started. Thankfully for Oma (Mom), she made a very delicious breakfast. Disneyland breakfast to be exact. Delicious french toast layered with some vanilla sauce and caramel sauce. It's fantastic. YUM.

After breakfast we all scurried on over to the movie theaters in Redondo Beach. We all split up to see different movies, but T and myself, we went to see Mission Impossible 4. T's parents, sister, and sister in-law helped a bunch with Emery in The Muppets. (MI4 was incredible by the way. Completely action-packed, language was clean and thankfully no "naughty" scenes. That was a relief. Oh, and Tom Cruise is an incredible actor by the way. )

Then it was off to Grandmothers house we go. haha Grandma lives right on Redondo beach, so after eating some delicious pizza, we all sat around and chatted while the food digested. (Ha! I rhymed!)

Tylee, T's sister, bought these adorable little beanie's for Emmy and Emmy's younger cousin, Craiger. Aren't they the cutest things ever? She sure has amazing taste! Craiger was happy as can be in his hat. Emmy, on the other hand, was a bit freaked out. She sat on Uncle Trek's lap, scared stiff. Poor little girl ended up tearing up and really freaked out. The hat came off, she was happy.

We walked on down to the beach. It was a gorgeous view. Funny thing about those seagulls right there. Auntie Char and I were playing with Emmy on the sand and giving her some Ritz crackers. She had dropped one, and I decided to leave it and said, "Oh, I'm sure the birds will get that later today". Not even 3 seconds after it had fallen, there came a swarm of those birds! It's like they were stalking us or something!

I just can't get enough of the beach. I love it. So peaceful, fun, and gorgeous. *sigh*

Fun fact of the day: Growing up, I always dreamt about marrying someone from California, specifically Southern California, that way we could go back and visit his family often and be in one of my favorite places on earth.

It didn't take long for the kids (old and young) to be down on the sand playing some ultimate frisbee. Who wouldn't want to shove their own face in the sand that millions of bare toes and feet have been. (And who knows what else!) 

 That would be Tylee. She loved being tackled to the ground by her older brother Trek. Just like the good ol' days, am I right?? haha Let's get a closer look...

 T quickly ran over to Emmy, Auntie Char and I and asked if I would take a picture of him with his little girl. How could I not?

Then it was my time to stand in front of the camera. Family picture!

Some more pictures of the fun time in the sun. More playing, Emmy with Auntie Char (Oma's sister) and Uncle Tuhk (T's brother) playing in the water. It was a happy time.

Emery's older cousin Lorian took over the pushing the stroller duties and Emmy loved every min of it. She laughed, smiled, and chatted the whole walk back.

Then it was time to head back to Oma and Opa's house to prepare for the Christmas eve traditions.

For those who were home, we acted out the nativity scene. It was pretty fun you know. Pretending to be Mary and riding the donkey (Tuhk). haha I had stuffed a blanket under my shirt and little Taya (pictured below) came running up to me and says "Is that baby Craiger under your shirt?! "(She knew her baby brother was going to be Baby Jesus) I smiled and said, "No, it's just a blanket" She replies, "I want to see baby Craiger under your shirt!" As she tries to look up my shirt. Love that little girl!

Here is a link to the video of our Nativity play.

Afterwards, we shared multiple stories including that of how the song Silent Night came to be. Trek shared this. Then the cousins and Trek and Dani sang Silent Night in German and then we all chimed in singing the first verse in English. (Trek and his family were stationed overseas in Germany for 3 years for the Air Force. As well as, Trek served a 2 year mission in Germany back in the day.)

In the middle of sharing stories, we heard bells jingling up in the master bedroom. Cadence, the eldest niece, jumped up and exclaimed, "Santa! He's here!" We all ran upstairs and followed the sound of the bells and there, by the fireplace in the master bedroom were wrapped presents for all of the children. They all opened them up and found pajamas. Santa made his stop, reminding the children that he would soon be by once again.

Then we laid out the treats for Santa and said goodnight to the kids. I'm pretty sure Santa's elves were busy until 1am getting the downstairs all ready. :)

Wait, can we just look at these little cheeks one last time??? You are welcome!