Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve out at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house in Wayzata. Grandpa whipped up a delicious turkey, Grandma passed around some gorgeous Christmas cookies, and the wine flowed all afternoon long. :) Aunt Emily was able to make it from California, so it was even more special to have all the Smith big kids home for Christmas! All that was missing were Finn and AJ.

back row: andrew, me, emme, emily
front row: jill, isabel, ansel, brody, leyton, brad & callan

presents! and yes, leyton does appear to be opening a bottle of macallen!

brody discovers his cowboy boots

what is all this excitement?

Grandma gave the kids cowboy (and girl) boots for Christmas this year! They looked so adorable prancing around in their boots all afternoon.

We headed out to church later tha/"[=t-=[-0l'=-ipo0k[t afternoon for the Christmas Eve service. Brody and Leyton were shepherds in the program this year, and they were so excited! We put together some makeshift costumes for them to wear, and they did a great job! The service was really amazing--beautiful, inspiring and just a perfect way to get your mindset to the right place for Christmas Day.

brody (in brown) & leyton (in black) singing Go Tell it on the Mountain

Brody had the very important job of holding the streamers while another kid ran them down the aisle. You can see how serious he is about his job.

When we returned home after the service, we enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of chili and tamales before receiving our gifts from the elves. New Christmas jammies--yes!

Then it was time to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn and leave out cookies for Santa. Can you believe there was no white Christmas in Minnesota this year?!

Time for bed with full tummies and full hearts. Merry Christmas to all!