Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was hosted by yours truly this year.  I was really excited to host and continue our Christmas Eve Soup night tradition.  (And it just so happened that I got new soup bowls from Mom for Christmas in my Winterberry pattern!)  We had a favorite, lasagna soup, as well as a new one - homemade Brunswick Stew with chicken and smoked barbecue (nope, no squirrel!)  Not the fanciest meal, but it's easy to prepare ahead of time so that I can enjoy the time with my family.  Our kids hate soup so they had "deconstructed" meals....plain pasta, plain vegetables, and breadsticks.  They were happy with that ( ugh, maybe one day???...)
Anyway, I love finally having a dining table that we can fit the whole family around and we are thankful for the family that could join us that night!

After everyone left, we had to get down to business.  We left oats and carrots on the back deck.  We hung our magic key on the front porch Christmas tree (because we don't have a real chimney.)  We left cookies for Santa, put the elf shoes in the tree, and read Twas the Night Before Christmas.  But the BIG thing that the kids had been looking forward to ALL day was that they got to hug and kiss Elfie goodbye before putting him back on the counter for his last night at our house.  He had left a cute poem for us on our last day explaining that for just that moment, they were allowed to touch him.  I wish I had taken a video because it was so quick that I couldn't really capture it in pictures, but the look of pure joy on their faces was priceless.  Claire thought it was truly magical to be able to touch him and I heard her whispering to him "thank you for letting me hug you."  She noticed he does in fact feel like a toy - and we decided he is just a toy until nighttime when he turns magical.
Goodbye Elfie - thanks for all the fun this year and we'll see you again next year!

Both kids were surprisingly easy to get to bed that night - Claire wanted to be sure NOT to be awake when Santa got there!  We checked the night sky one last time before bed and luckily did not see Rudolph's nose just yet.  This is the MOST wonderful night of the year!