My kind of Christmas Eve

It was a rather soggy day here, and we had a few errands to run.  We took Grady to get his nails trimmed, grabbed bagels at Panera Bread for tomorrow's brunch with the Ballards, and ran to Kroger for other items for the brunch.  The word of the day was patience as we dealt with many, many folks out doing last minute shopping in the rain.  We came home and just lazed around for the afternoon, which also included a glorious nap for me! 

Kendra and I have many wonderful friends here.  We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with several of them, but we decided we wanted a quiet night at home instead. We turned on the fireplace, lit up the tree, and settled in to a nice evening to relax!  Kendra's primary teacher and two of her adorable children came by with a treat and sang to us!  I think that might be the first time I have ever had carolers at my house!  So darn cute.  My house smells like baking bread as I fired up the breadmaker that has been in retirement for about 9 years and baked the first of two loaves for tomorrow as well!  YUMMY!

I've been enjoying reading (my breaks-only pleasure) and Kendra's been crafting and vegging in front of the TV (I know...not really great parenting but hey, she's on vacation too!). 

Staying home = mismatched comfy clothes!

Soon, we will do this...

Borrowing a tradition from a friend, we started a "gifts for Jesus" box several years ago.  We each decide upon some area of personal improvement we want to make as our gift to our Savior.  We read the gift from last year and write our new one each Christmas Eve.

Then we will read this...

And also this...

Kendra will tuck into my bed, because she tends to wander in during the night anyway and we wouldn't want her to stumble upon Santa.  I'll turn off the fire (so as to cool in time for the man in the big red suit) and head to bed myself after I do my Elfish duties.  All in all, this is my idea of a perfect Christmas Eve!