Christmas Eve

I was responsible for the Christmas Eve activity this year. I saw a cute idea (on Pinterest, of course) to do "Reindeer Games." I had to alter the games to fit our age group, so I came up with some fun reindeer inspired names and put them on a sign for a morning of a little friendly competition.

We went to the church gym so the kids could run wild without tearing Mary's house apart. The first game was "Fixin' Up Vixen" a.k.a. putting on reindeer antlers.

Then we did "Musical Prancers" which was musical chairs. I was too busy lugging chairs around to take a picture, but it was fun. Kaelynn was our winner. Then we did "Cupid's Caroling." We sung two songs with hand motions for that one.

Then we did "Blitzen's Boot Camp" which was a chair weaving race. This was probably the favorite activity of them all. Which was funny because it was so simple. But it was fun to get all the spouses paired up against each other, and the siblings had fun racing each other. And the kids were actually really quick at this!

Then we played "Donner, Donner, Elf." Which as you could guess is played very similarly to Duck, Duck, Goose.

This game was actually big hit too.

I love Jeff's family because they can have so much fun no matter what they are doing. All the adults jumped into the game and they were hilarious.

After Donner, Donner, Elf, we did "Freeze Dancering" -- freeze dancing. The music wasn't very loud so freeze dancering could have gone better, but the kids had fun with it still.

Then we did "Mad Dasher" which was a race to see who could find the most reindeer that Jeff had stealthily hid around the gym as we were playing the other games. The reindeer hid on David's back was one of my favorite parts of the Reindeer Games.

Then we did "Comet's Chimney Toss" which was throwing balls into a laundry hamper.

Then we did "Run, Run Rudolph." Which was just a race to the wall and back.

Could you tell my goal of the morning was to wear the kids out so they would be ready for a nice, quiet afternoon rest?

We wore the husbands out at least.

Then we had lunch there, and then we got a special impromptu performance from Kaelynn, Tyler and Austen singing "I am a Child of God."

That afternoon we made cookies for Santa.

Carson was sure to sneak snuggles with Barkley every chance he could.

Then in the evening Celeste brought over some costumes for us to act out the Nativity.

Eli was a wiseman.

As was Carson. But he wasn't too happy to be in a dress.

Tana was dubbed our noble Mary. The perks of being pregnant for Christmas.

A shepherd and a wise man sorting out their lines.

The three inn keepers sorting out their lines.

Don't worry innkeeper #2. There are no small roles.

We finished the night off with a delicious hot chocolate bar.

And the kids were all wound up, excited for Santa to come!

With the cookies out waiting, we were sure to lure Santa in!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!