CHRISTMAS Eve!

Christmas Eve starts some fun traditions in our house... we always start the baking for us!  Usually, we've done some crazy baking all month long... but that's for friends and for school staff and teachers.  Christmas Eve means yummies for us!  So as you can see, Matthew headed up the baking of the cookies.  And yes, that's Kloey's bassinette behind him.  (?)  Not sure why he strolled her in there, I guess to be a part of the fun (?)

 The girls got to decorate all their cookies with fabulous teeny tiny toppings that Mommy had to go on her hands and knees to pick up every last one because more found their way to the ground then on the cookies!

 Round 1 of our finished products.

 He had a system of going in and out of the oven, the decoration timing, the cooling timing... I just took pictures.  And I managed to eat about 2 dozen myself! :)

 We always go to the movies on Christmas Eve, an early movie.  So given Kloey's really young, I gladly stayed home all by myself with her.  Poor me, HAHAHAHA- peace and quiet... actually I took on some last minute shopping- grocery, couponing, and gift shopping.  Matthew took the oldest 3 to see Tangled again.  Definitely my most favorite Disney movie, can't wait until it comes out on dvd!  And, the evening was also filled with the ever festive meal... of Chinese food!  We've done it every year we've been married... nothing like some Orange Chicken, Beef n Broccoli, and Fried Rice to bring on the Holidays!!!!

 Although, I did prepare with my homemade rolls rising throughout the day.  Kylie loves them!

 And I did prepare a ham in the crockpot for Christmas Day... too bad we went to the Aliante Casino buffet for Christmas Brunch... and we were way to stuffed to touch my ham.  But it made for good leftovers with the rolls.

We ended our evening with a fun late night movie, another tradition we'll keep up, as it was a really cute movie.  Yummy popcorn and candy keeps little girls pleasantly amused as the time ticks for Santa to come!

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And... drum roll please.... this is what our house looked late late on Christmas Eve!  Insane.  Ever year, we say we aren't going to over do it.  And I didn't, in terms of money spent.  (?)  But every year, that doesn't happen.  Lots of presents, lots of toys that travel to the abyss of the toy room... always wondering if our kids understood that it's better to give than to receive.  As there was giving done by our family, I wonder how much the girls got out of it.  Maybe they're still too young.  However, next year we are implementing some new plans...

Given we have 4 children, so there's 4 times as many gifts as say for an only child.  We still noticed the highs and lows of the gift indulgence, and maybe they are too young to understand but I'd rather nip it in the bud right now.  The thrill of the new toys also brought the bitter greed of not sharing and nasty attitudes.  The toys sat around the family room, so many things not only from Santa but from us and family, many things from last year going out to the donation box in spring cleaning... if not some things from this Christmas also.  Next year, as with my resolution of SIMPLFYing and doing less overall but only keeping the "quality" things... this will spill over into Christmas giving for the girls as we've asked family members to do for us.  Less is more in so many ways.  Having a couple of things that YOU LOVE and are so excited about is so much better than a lot of stuff.  Not to be a downer, but we realized a huge Christmas in a picture doesn't mean a good Christmas.  A good Christmas comes by what we do leading up to it, and the traditions and fun things we do as a family.  The commericalism wrecks it, and I saw the green little monsters coming out in my little preciousnesses.  Toys get broken, toys get faught over, many toys get left unused because something better came along.  That's not what I'm trying to teach my girls, but I think inadvertantly that is what we're teaching our girls.  Not that it's our fault, I think everyone to a degree does it.  But we need to declutter our life.  So we're instituting a change here and now!!!  Quality over quantity  in so many aspects of our life which we are very excited about!  You know that feeling when you look at something and it's a mess and you have no clue what's in there, or where to start, or if it's important, if you like it or if you don't (for us an example is our bedroom closet)... and you know that feeling of go through it all, cleaning it, organizing it so that a stranger could walk in and know exactly where everything is... that's what I'm going for!!!!  OCD, maybe... but that's definitely  me.  And it's going to be great!