Christmas Eve...

is the BIG day!

In my family most of the "big" Christmas action actually occurs on Christmas Eve. It hasn't always been this way, but as our family and grown and changed it has become a tradition that fits this current chapter in our lives. So I thought I would share some of the goings on of the day with you... with lots of pictures!

First, a little introduction. Mom and Dad took in a dog named Toby...

This 2 1/2 year old dog that is already house trained and VERY well behaved is now a resident at my parents house. His previous owner has a new baby and decided it was time for the dog to go! He is especially partial to my mom and she to him... Tuffy (their Yorkie, is not so thrilled)!

So Christmas Eve started pretty early this morning as we got ready for Dad's side of the family to join us for our annual Christmas Eve brunch! The spread included quiche, scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, gravy, biscuits, pancakes, hot fruit, cold fruit, doughnuts, and I could keep going... so the cooking started pretty early!

Bentlee got in on the action... she placed all the biscuits on the pan and cracked all the eggs!

I made tomato-basil quiche... it was a new recipe and turned out great! I'll share it on Tasty Tuesday some time! Mom did LOTS, I can't even list it all... she's amazing!

And Dad fried most of the fried apple pies that mom made so I wouldn't get splattered! :-)

This is Bentlee and Elizabeth (my cousin's little girl) toasting before breakfast! They have a good time together even though they only see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas!

After brunch we always do a Chinese auction (where each person brings a gift and everyone draws a number and then you can open or steal gifts up to three times, etc). It's always SO much fun, SO many laughs, and it's great on every one's budget! We used to gift everyone, then we drew names, but we landed on this years ago and it stuck! It's a real winner in our family! After many steals and some strategizing with my sister-in-law, I walked away with a beautiful pair of candle sticks!

After everyone left, Bentlee stayed with us while Ken and Sarah went to take care of some official Santa business. B fell asleep and had her nap (that she takes daily for about 2 hours - how nice is that!!).

She is so sweet! She sleeps as hard as a rock! We played music, cleaned up, and Toby even jumped on her a couple of times and she never even stirred!

When she got up she was rip roarin' ready to play! Here we are being silly~

And then Christmas Eve night we have our "family" Christmas, just me, Mom, Dad, Ken, Sarah, and Bentlee! This year Sarah and Malcolm chose to stay home for Christmas. We watched Christmas Vacation, had dinner (Paninis and Chili - Mmm) and then opened gifts and played!

At the end of the night we concluded with another tradition we have adopted in our family. It is an Old World Christmas tradition of hanging a pickle on the Christmas tree (we have an ornament that is a pickle, not an actual pickle). Mom always hides it and then the first person to find it get's the "pickle prize" which is always an ornament. My brother got it this year... again! He's good at finding it!

Overall, so far, it has been a wonderful and blessed holiday!