Christmas Eve Traditions

Smile Cousins! Raeley, my daughter, with Lindsay (sister Denise's daughter) and Jordan (sister Suzanna's daughter).
Sarah and Mackenzie's first Christmas to share with us.

Angela (youngest daughter of Kimberly, my twin sister)wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Christmas Eve
One of the things I love about Christmas are a few traditions that I have grown up with on Christmas eve.
My parents, my sisters and their families, and my family all gather for a meal.
Christmas Story and Devotional Time
My dad reads the Christmas story from Luke 2.
My mom reads a story about a child who ponders what it would be like if Jesus had never come. She (mom) always cries at the same spot.
We enjoy an intimate time of talking about Christmas, sometimes someone brings an extra devotional or shares something extra special.
Egg Nog
Then Mom fixes her eggnog - she mixes it with ice cream and sprinkles nutmeg on top. I thought that all eggnog you mixed with ice cream. I didn't know people drank it out of the container until I was in college.
Santa Alert
When it starts getting late, we do a santa alert and quickly get the kids in bed. The santa alert used to be someone hearing a jingle bell from the reindeer. Now we just rely on Norad.
The Record
We pile the kids in bed and play a special Christmas record with the chipmunk song, the story of Santa's workshop, and dogs barking the jingle bell song(The Singing Dogs). It's what we *tried* to fall asleep to every year. Many of my nieces and nephews also got to listen to it, but the record burned in a house fire in 1990. I would love to find that record again, so if any of you have an old copy in your attic, please let me know! My parents only played the record on Christmas eve when we were tucked in our beds. Since I only got to listen to it that one time every year, I would try my hardest to stay awake and listen to the whole thing.
The Mad Dash
Now that my parent's house is smaller, we don't all spend the night together to wake up and also share Christmas morning together, but those were great memories - 8 cousins (my nieces and nephews), my twin sister and I all lining up on the stairs, making the mad dash into the den to see the presents left by Santa.

Christmas in Houston

We have arrived for a Christmas in Houston. We picked Jordan up from the LCB Louisianna Center for the Blind, where she is attending their training program, a six to nine month program. We shoved her into our already sardine-liked packed vehicle halfway through the drive to Houston. When we arrived at Mema's and BigDaddy's (my mom and dad's house) we noticed they won 3rd place in the yard contest. It is significantly warmer here, but it feels like being home for Christmas. After we had been here for a while, Cameron whispered to me "Mom, are Angela and Evelyn hiding upstairs for me?" Angela and Evelyn are her cousins, my twin sister's two youngest daughters. She and Angela are two weeks apart. She was so excited, she couldn't wait to see them! She was a jabberbox, with a huge grin all night. All the kids love the attention my parents show them and I am so blessed by their relationship.