Christmas Eve

My beloved Christmas Eve!! It was a nice wintery day in Texas, which was perfect for our Soup-in-a-bun dinner. Right after dinner came the annual opening of presents from each other. Have I mentioned how much I love this tradition?? The first gifts opened each year are the ones to and from each other, bought with their own money. It was wonderful and fun, as always. We then ran through our usual list of traditions - cookies for Santa, food for the reindeer, talk about our service-straw nativity, read the Christmas story from the Bible - and sent the kids off to bed! This year the older kids really wanted to all sleep together in the same room, but they didn't want Ruby keeping them up all night. Which was a very likely possibility, and you know how hard it is to sleep on Christmas Eve anyway! So we proposed the solution of Ruby getting a sleepover in mom and dad's room, in a little camping bed on the floor, and the rest of the kids sleeping in the boys room. Everybody was happy, and we all had a fun and memorable night. And yes, Ruby slept in AGAIN on Christmas morning!!! One day out of the year that she always sleeps in! Go figure. :)