Christmas Eve

Uncle Brian flew in to Dayton to celebrate Christmas with us. It was so fun to have him here. The boys were instantly into him. Within minutes of arriving, he was knee deep in trains and superhero powers!

We also put him to work helping with cookies and dinners. Mmmm, this was a very successful food weekend. Everything turned out so tasty and delicious.

On Christmas Eve, we played with Uncle Brian for a few hours before heading over to a friends house to decorate gingerbread houses. I think Daddy & Uncle Brian were happy to have a few moments of silence. :)

Axel did way more "tasting" than decorating. He was a Sugar Bear for sure!
Vera and her creation.
Emmett made a Christmas outhouse.
Gareth adding his chimney.
Back at home, Sugar Bear took a nap while the other Elf's decorated sugar cookies!

If you want a great sugar cookie recipe check out this one: Coveted Sugar Cookies
(Tips: I don't use Almond Extract, just vanilla. I make flattened dough balls before chilling 1 hour to help the rolling out process. I also make them thicker, about 1/4 inch)
It quickly turned into a competition on who could be most creative!
Obviously, Daddy thinks he's the winner...in the Christmas spirit, we let him believe it. :)
As you can tell from Lucas' face, they got very creative. I think I was making the blue hippo at this point.
If you look closely, you will see that we had quiet the cookie crew...tons of character for sure!
This Christmas Eve, I wanted to start something new now that Axel was old enough to really get into everything. I placed a few pipe cleaners on each person's place setting (same amount, same colors to be fair), under everyone's plate was a paper candy cane and only one folded out to be a double candy cane.

After eating dinner, everyone had to make a special Christmas Eve hat out of the pipe cleaners. We all voted on the best one and they were all so great, everyone tied! As a tie breaker, the person with the double candy cane under their plate got to open the special present on the table. Lucas was the present opener. He was pretty certain he had won something just for him but to his suprize, there was a treat inside with everyone's name on it. He handed everyone there prize. It was so fun, what a big hit!
Here are the hats...
Tah-dah! Axel was totally into the fun!
The prize!
Sharing!
Lucas turned to me and said, "I thought the prize was going to be just for me?" Mommy said, "Yes I know, but wasn't it more fun for everyone to win! What if Axel won the double candy cane and got a prize just for him and no one else won?" Lucas responded, "That would be NO fun, this was WAY better!" :)
After dinner, we all sat down and watched The Polar Express. Axel was completely captivated and emotionally attached the entire movie. He screamed during the scary parts but couldn't turn away. He cheered during happy parts and flipped out over the Christmas tree and Santa. It was adorable.
Before bed, we read T'was the Night Before Christmas!
Everyone was very excited to go to bed in anticipation for the big morning to come!