Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the beginning of all the holiday traditions.  And between our two families, we're getting quite the list!  We began the day at the Calls.  Traditionally, on Christmas Eve, we go to a movie and then come home to Chinese food from Dragon Hill.  This year, we tweeked the tradition a bit.  Papa Call got his Christmas present a little early...a 55" TV and Blu-Ray player!  He already had the sound system, so with that we had a little theater of our own!

In order to enjoy the new present, we decided to watch a movie at home and do lunch from Dragon Hill.  But first thing's first!  It was time for Christmas jammies, lovingly provided by Grandma Call.

This was the first of many present these kiddos were going to be opening, and they were so excited!  Johnny was especially enthralled with the whole thing.

Before we look at how cute these grandkids looked in their spiffy new Christmas jammies, I had to get a picture of Papa and Johnny in his "Grandpa" outfit.  Papa was pretty sick for the first few days we were there, so I promise he was more excited than he looks... :)

I can't believe how the grandkid count jumped this year!  We added three new kids this year: Braxton, Taven, and Johnny.  And now we have a nice equal number of  boys and girls...until March when Andi arrives.

The Boys

The Girls

And the cutest Call kids of them all!  But only barely... :)

Once we were done taking pictures and eating the delicious Chinese food, we headed downstairs to enjoy "Despicable Me" in Blu-Ray and surround sound.  It was awesome!  And it was a pretty cute movie, too! :)  The Call family Christmas Eve tradition wrapped up at about 4:00 pm.  After that, it was time for the Vigil Christmas Eve at Grandma Candy's!

Danny and I had been dying to try another recipe from Our Best Bites, and Christmas Eve was perfect for it.  We enjoyed some Smores Hot Chocolate before acting out the Nativity while Grandma Candy read from Luke 2.  Claire was Joseph, Isabelle was Mary, and Sophie was the angel.

And of course, Johnny was the baby Jesus.  It was his first of two Nativities as the sacred child.  It wasn't until the second one at the Call Christmas party that Danny realized Johnny's initials were J.C.  Coincidence?  Definitely.

I think Matt and Jenny made awesome, and somewhat Arabian, shepherds.  I was in charge of videography/photography and Danny was in charge of lighting the star on the tree at the appropriate time.  And as I mentioned, Grandma Candy narrated.

After this, it was back to Grandma and Papa's to tuck the kids in bed.  I think Danny and I were only up until midnight...not too shabby!