Christmas Eve

This Christmas was the first one, since Jordan and I have been married, that we haven't been with family. While it is kind of sad to not be together with everyone and missing out on all the fun activities and traditions (like making tamales! Oh how I miss you!) it has been a lot of fun to start our own traditions and have Christmas in our own house. We were much more motivated to decorate our home since the whole holiday season would be spent here. And it is much easier on Christmas morning when you don't have to plan gifts around what you can pack, or just give IOU's for stuff that is waiting for you at home. Clara is also old enough for Christmas to be magical, so it was a lot of fun for us to see that and have her experience it with just us.

For Christmas Eve, Jordan and I decided it would be fun to make tempura (using my Christmas gift from last year, a fondue pot!) and sushi. It was a lot of fun.
The sushi was awesome! It is so easy to make, but I don't always think about it. Making it made me want to make it more often! The tempura wasn't as good, but now I just see that as a challenge to get better at it! After our fun dinner, we each got to open one present- new Christmas pajamas! Jordan and I always pick out the kids' jammies together, and then we each pick out the others, so they are a surprise. Clara was already hyped up on Christmas fun!

And had a hard time sitting still for pictures!
Here is a little video of Clara singing Jingle Bells.

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Can you see the footsie pajamas Jordan got me? They are two piece, and not one, but they do have the feet on them! Jordan's may look a little boring in comparison, but he loves them! He said the piping on them made him feel classy.
After putting on our new pajamas, we read the accounts of Jesus' birth out of the Bible and Book of Mormon, then sang a bunch of Christmas Hymns. Clara has a love/hate relationship with singing, and apparently Christmas Eve was a hate day. The entire time we were singing (and we sang about 8 songs!) she was yelling at us to "turn it off". After that, we got out egg nog and cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer to share. Then we went out to the front yard and spread reindeer food (oats mixed with glitter) to help them lead Santa to our house.

Then we sent the kids to bed and finished wrapping presents and awaited Santa's arrival. I t was such a fun night. We made great memories and, hopefully, started some fun traditions!