Christmas Eve

After our terrible drive back from Utah on Thanksgiving we decided to fly home for Christmas. Because of this we didn't have room to pack all of the Christmas presents in our bags so we opened half the presents the morning of Christmas Eve before we flew out that afternoon.

Some of Jeff's friends from Ireland sent Jack & Addie some presents including this soccer ball, a soccer shirt & a dress for Addie.


Miya kindly gifted Jack some sweet headphones! These were perfect since he broke his other ones during our T-day road trip.
One of the presents we gave him was this back pack. It was perfect for him to carry some of his things on the airplane.That afternoon we headed through the Denver airport bound for Utah. Turns out Christmas Eve is the day to travel. The airport was dead and we sailed through no problem! (so not like us:))Jack proudly showing his new watch that came in his happy meal. It conveniently matched his new back pack. Yes, our Christmas Eve lunch was one of McDonalds. Airport choices are LIMITED!
Once in Alpine we enjoyed a delicious Christmas Eve dinner of sweet and sour chicken and then had our traditional program/talent show. This program is always filled with a perfect combination of talent, silliness & sentiment. The Freeman family singing a Christmas tuneDave & Matt playing the ocarina. This was hilarious. A few years back Dave & Scott played nose flutes so this was their follow up. The ocarina is a flute that you play on your iPhone. It's pretty awesome.
Sharon, Gary, Scott & Meridith singing/playing a Christmas song
Marianne on the oboe and Matt on the piano
Steve & Scott playing the guitar and singingMelissa & Ellie doing a dance number
Rosemary & Brent singing Noel
Jack dancing to Electronic Santa Claus
Gary, Suzy & Scott were the grand finale singing a GORGEOUS rendition of Sufijan Steven's, Come thou fount. They sounded amazing!Addie loved all the music!

After the program Santa Claus (Jeff) stopped by & Jack was SO excited! He seriously had no idea who was under the red suit. He ran right up to Santa and said, "I want a Blue's Clues notebook!"
Everyone had their turn sitting on Santa's lap...











Then we opened our sibling exchange gifts. We had Steve's name and gifted him this American Apparel sweat shirt.
Matt had our name and gifted us a cell phone car charger and the 6 player expansion set to Settlers of Catan.
Jack received this T-Rex from the Freeman's.
Since Addie slept through her big dance number Dave had her balance in his hand. Such talent!
We had a lovely Christmas Eve and finished it off staying up late wrapping and getting things ready for Christmas morning.