Christmas Eve

This year I had to work on Christmas Eve {from 2-7} which wasn't too bad. Before my shift I spent my time in the kitchen. We were having Cafe Rio for dinner {well, that's what everyone else ate while I was working} and I was in charge of the dressing and a couple cheese balls. I made everything from scratch because everything is better when made from scratch.

I cleaned up the kitchen and went off to work. We were with the Whites this year so Danny took the boys over to Doug & Eva's and they had dinner, opened presents and hung out. Work was really slow and I was just basically hanging out, watching Netflix and watching the clock while occasionally getting a text or email to process. I haven't worked a Christmas Eve since Deseret Book back in the day. I was eager to leave and meet up with my family.

Cole was already sporting his new jammies by the time I got there.

The Santa tracker was also in full usage.

Nate is still a believer so Cole played along and told me that he just wants to keep pretending he doesn't know that we are Santa. Fine by me :)

We visited for a while and then decided to head home because Christmas morning comes early and can be kind of a long day so we gotta rest our eyes...We got things set up and hit the hay. Cole told us we didn't need to set up the sign this year but we don't give up on tradition that easily.

Things felt different this year {like I knew they would} with Cole knowing "the truth" about Santa but there's still something fun and magical about setting up the cozy scene. Of course this doesn't take precedence over what we are truly celebrating but you go your entire life knowing that Christmas is about the Savior and that window of time for believing in something magical is so small. So precious. I know more and more people choose not to do "The Santa Thing" and that's fine. We have chosen to do it and have tied it into being Christ-like and have used Santa as more of a symbol of Him. 

It works for us.

 Caleb got the shaft this year. Diapers for Christmas? Thanks for nothing, St. Nick.