T'was The Night Before Christmas...

At our house, we love Christmas Eve just about as much as we love Christmas Day. A few of our traditions include:

Family feast: This year's dinner included a delicious beef tenderloin (filet mignon) roast with Bearnaise sauce, creamy mashed potatoes with gravy, freshly steamed asparagus with cheese sauce, raspberry jello salad & homemade rolls. Plus, to top it all off, Mom made delicious fudge and her popular strawberry tart for dessert.

We were thrilled that Nana & Papa could join us in celebrating Christmas this year. They are both so much fun and love participating in all of the traditions of Christmas.

Christmas lights: Generally, we drive around neighborhoods "famous" for their awesome light display. This year, we decided to check out the Spanaway light display--the largest outdoor light display in the Northwest.

Nativity: We always like to have a spiritual element to our evening as we seek to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas. They love dressing up and playing the role of Mary, Joseph, wisemen, etc...

(I thought this was the sweetest picture of our little wiseman kissing the baby Jesus.)

Open one present: This tradition began when I was a child and the present almost always consisted of opening a new pair of Christmas pajamas. We've continued this tradition our family. (Here is Landon opening his new pair of pjs.)

Setting out cookies for Santa/ stockings:

Stay tuned for our Christmas morning post. Lots of smiles.