Christmas Eve Play by Play :)

Well today is Christmas Eve and for the past several years, we've had a tradition of cooking/cleaning all day, going to the Candlelight Service with our family and then coming back to the house for dinner and some presents. In the past, some of my cousins come for the evening with their kids and we all have a great time watching the kids open presents and celebrating the holiday. This year though, they weren't able to make it, and even Amy (my brother's girlfriend) was sick, so instead of 12 or 14 people, we were just cooking for 6.

Mom's Christmas Tree

Brookelynne Starr....She's wearing her new necklace from Mrs Carmen!

Cheesing it up!

We headed out to the candle light service at 4:15 and not long after getting onto I-10, we were rear ended. :( It was Mom, Brookelynne and I and the impact didn't feel that bad at all. The car held up really well, but theirs was pretty smashed up. It looks like the frame of our car is bent, but the insurance adjuster is coming up this week, so we'll have to see. Needless to say, after waiting for the FHP and getting a report filed, we missed the candlelight service, so we just headed back to the house to wait for Mitch to get there so we could start eating and open presents. We had decided to move Christmas with my family to Christmas Eve, since Brookelynne would be getting her 'Santa presents' at our house on Christmas morning and it makes for a REALLY long day for us to open presents here, then at my mom's and then at Mitch's moms. So after eating a delicious dinner (Thanks Mom!), we all gathered round and opened presents!

Opening her frog slippers! (Daddy thought they were gators at first and said "Gator slippers?" and Brookelynne promptly threw them on the ground! It was priceless! That's Daddy's girl!

Reading her new Pooh book with Daddy

Grandma got silverware for Christmas!

Brookelynne and Uncle Josh (She was in the process of climbing off the couch!)

Paw Paw, Uncle Josh and BoogaBoo!

Brookelynne got a adorable outfit, several pairs of socks, new slippers, a pop up toy and a four wheeler! (Don't worry, the four wheeler has a maximum speed of 1 mph! lol) She also helped others open their presents. By the end of the night she had definitely figured out what this opening presents thing was all about!  haha. She was also playing with ALL of the presents, even Mama's!

Trying on Mama's new boots! Such a stinker!