Christmas Eve

I can't believe it's already Christmas...Eve! I think I love this day more than Christmas. That might be crazy to imagine, but I don't care as much about the gifts I receive as I do the meaning behind the season...and I feel we focus more on that meaning on Christmas Eve than Christmas Day. During the day, the boys busied themselves building their traditional fort. We also made some cookies for Santa. Jonas got to help on the new stool Daddy built for him. He LOVED it! He made sure he got an apron and then got to work. He helped put ingredients in the mixer (and his mouth!). All the boys helped out. I hope Santa liked them! I know chocolate chip cookies with red and green M&Ms are his favorite.

The rest of the afternoon was spent just hanging out and enjoying time together as a family. We all worked on a puzzle and the boys built their traditional Christmas Eve fort.

That evening, the real festivities began. I was so glad that my parents were able to enjoy our traditions with us. Many of these traditions I had growing up. The luminaries are one of them. We filled 144 bags with a little sand and a candle then lined our property with them before carefully lighting each one. Sometimes I wonder if it's a little much to line our whole driveway and front property line, but when all is said and done, it is breathtaking...and always worth it. I love the tradition, but I love the symbolism even more. We were lighting the way for the Christ child to come to our home. I hope He will always feel welcome here.

After setting out the luminaries, we headed back inside for our Bethlehem dinner and Christmas Eve devotional. The dinner consists of foods found in the Bible (with certain modern day twists). I actually really enjoy this dinner. I like having little tastes of some of my favorite foods - salmon, carne asada, humus, olives, etc. Once we finished eating and cleaning up, we gathered for the devotional. This year we focused on the symbol of "light". Christ truly is the Light of the World, but we need to shine His light for everyone. As I wandered through the lights at Luminaria and enjoyed setting out our luminaries, I couldn't helped but think what would happen if even one of those lights didn't work. At Luminaria, there were a few lanterns in the Light of the World garden that weren't illuminated. Even though there were so many more that were lit, I couldn't help notice the ones that weren't. I don't want to be one of those lights. I want to shine. I hope we all shine a little brighter in the new year.
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We finally put all the gifts under the tree. Needless to say, Jonas was enthralled!

Christmas will always be magical through the eyes of a child.

Once we finished our devotional, the boys got their traditional Christmas Eve Christmas jammies. I snapped a few pictures then we set out the milk and cookies for Santa before the boys retired to bed. It is almost Christmas!