Christmas Eve 2013

First Christmas Eve ever! He didn't even know what was coming.

A favorite

First ever cheeseball and it was AMAZING. (Not my recipe so I can brag about it)

Christmas Eve was so much fun this year. Amanda, Willie and Callie joined us for most of the day and we did a LOT of cooking, a LOT of playing, a LOT of eating and I squeezed in a last minute shopping trip to Target because Santa's helpers forgot a few things.

My favorite pic of the day

This was something funny. Cole got a letter from Santa but we have NO CLUE how he got it. In all seriousness. Gpa Egan brought it in with the mail and it looked pretty legit. We were dumbfounded with who sent it and why. We went back and forth about who sent it (not in front of Cole) and how it couldn't have been so-and-so, etc. It was so thoughtful. So thank you to whoever did it (even though you probably don't read this blog).

Amanda and I were cooking FOOLS. We made breakfast, lunch, snickity snacks and then we whipped up an awesome ham dinner with funeral potatoes, a delicious salad and had plenty of dessert in the form of candy...which leads me to my next point:

This year we challenged Willie and Amanda to a gingerbread house decorating house contest. We've been pretty serious about it in years past and we may need a break from it because this year our hearts just weren't in it. Amanda had a secret board on Pinterest where she was posting ideas and Danny and I bought some random candy from the bins at Winco and totally winged it. We were both so tired from staying up too late every night watching Christmas movies that we just slapped everything together and it was pretty obvious. We posted the results on Facebook and invited people to vote for their favorite. 

Ours

Theirs

This is what I put on Facebook. They kicked our trash. The funny thing is, at one point their entire structure was collapsing and Amanda was fiercely trying to save it. You can't tell from this picture but the back side was looking pretty special. Despite that--they deserved to win and Danny and I have been humbled :) Amanda is super competitive, which I love, because I am too. 

After they went home, we set out a few things and groggily dragged our bones upstairs.

 I turned out the lights feeling a twinge of sadness amid the magic feeling that was present. Was this the last year that the "magic" of the season would be believed in SO strongly? Would things be different next year? My hormonal heart was feeling emotional about the fact that Cole is growing up. At least we have Caleb to keep the magic alive for a few more years to come :)