Christmas Eve with Gram and Grandad

After Natalie's appearance in the nativity play at my church, we headed home to wait for the green light to go over to Mother's for Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember, we have always done the opening of gifts on Christmas Eve. That is the way it has been since I was a little girl. Why break tradition now?

Once Mother and Calvin were out of church, we made our way over to their house. Lucky for us (especially lucky for the kiddos), the food was not ready. Mother said that the corn casserole would not be ready for another 30 minutes, do you want to just open presents now? Are you kidding? The kids were itching inside of their skin waiting to open presents! I am quite sure we would have a much quieter dinner if they opened presents and calmed themselves down before we asked them to sit down in form of china dishes.

We gladly all sat down for the handing out of presents. My mom did the honors. When she said go, the kids went to town. Cooper opened his VERY favorite gift of ALL time, the talking parrot. He has wanted this thing since last year when he spotted it at Costco. Gram was the hero of the day by getting it for him. I do not think he noticed any other gift after he opened that parrot. He was enamored with that thing.

Natalie locked in on the Hello Kitty tent as her FAVORITE thing. She had pointed it out to me in Target one day, IN JULY, telling me she wanted it for Christmas. I said, sure, sure ,sure, I'll remember. Well, thank goodness John remembered. He told Gram, and she made Natalie's day. Once Natalie opened it, she screeched, ran over to Gram, said thank you about 33 times and started asking every adult if they could put it together for her. After the tent, she did not really notice any other gift either.

Luke? It does not take a lot to get Luke excited. He really liked the dump truck that Aunt Autumn got him, but his favorite of all was the royal blue ball that Gram got him. If in doubt on what to get Luke? A ball. It is that simple. Really.

After all the gift-giving and receiving, we sat down to an awesome meal. my mom made this corn casserole that is so good, you almost feel guilty for eating it. It is SO GOOD. It almost tastes like candy, but it is made with corn, so how bad could it be for you?!? We also had ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with brown gravy and roasted sweet potatoes. It was so good, I think I ate a little too much for my gall-bladderless state. Oh well, it was worth it. Great time, great food, great family, great fellowship!