Every Christmas Eve morning we load up the car with all our stuff (including all of our gifts!) and head over to Mrs. Charlotte’s house. We have a day filled with activities! Last year there was a good bit of downtime. The kids got pretty bored at some points so we talked about each of us planning a special fun activity to do during the day to keep them entertained. Busy children = well behaved children which = happy parents!!!
We kicked off that morning with Casey and Jordan’s activity: a scavenger hunt! It was adorable how much effort they put into it and it was super fun to watch everyone participate!!!
Reading the special letter!
Too cute!
Teacher Mode Casey
(Jordan was cracking me up with his random facial expressions during her explanation of everything!)
Team One: Britt and Big Papa
Team Two: Zach and Payton
Team Three: Kye and Aunt Courtney
(Team Four was Colt and Trey but I didn’t get a picture of them!)
Casey and Jordan hid clues all over the property with little treats at each stop. Everyone had the clues in a different order and it was a race to see who could collect all the clues and treasures first! This family is SO competitive. You know Zach and Courtney were already inching away before they even said “go” haha!
Trey and Colt took a little longer to get going…
First Place!!!
2nd Place! (they were allowed to use the golf cart b/c we needed to save Mr. Rusty’s energy for the football game haha)
3rd Place! Kye didn’t mind not winning…as long as he could eat his treats 😉
Poor Colt and Trey came in so far last that I don’t even know if they got the last clue?
After the fun hunt we got ready for the BIG GAME! We set up a big table of food for everyone for lunch and the kids loved getting to have a picnic (even though it was FREEZING out!). Usually the football game isn’t until nap time but we had to start it earlier this year and it worked out fine. The kids loved watching and I was able to take them in for naps during halftime! 🙂
Colt and Payton don’t take naps anymore (which I know is the norm for Kye’s age…I’m holding on to nap time as long as I possibly can!!!). While Kye and Britt napped, we all watched movies because Colt and Payton did not seem to be feeling okay. Leading up to Christmas I was SO WORRIED that Kye and I would be sick. I went to the dr the day prior to Christmas Eve and found out I did have the flu. They say that termiflu medicine doesn’t work unless you get it right away…but yall I don’t care when you get it, GET IT. I’d been sick for a week and that junk still did WONDERS for me! I was feeling soooooo much better on Christmas Eve!!! But then I felt so, so, so guilty b/c Mr. Rusty, Colt and Payton all came down with it.
Since no where is open on Christmas Eve Courtney and Brad did decide to go ahead and take the kids to the emergency room. I’m so thankful they made that decision! They did test positive for flu and getting that medicine in them asap helped so much! It was super, super sad not to have everyone together that day, but it was worth it for them to feel better Christmas morning!
Our kids actually took mega long naps and we ended up waking Kye up at 5! Kye does NOT like to be woken up. He was so sleepy and out of it so I took advantage of some cuddle time 🙂
Since Courtney’s crew was gone (they actually didn’t get back to the house until almost 10 that night. SO sad!!! A few years ago they actually went to the ER in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve because Brad was super sick…so at least this was earlier than that year for them!) we obviously couldn’t do her activity. Luckily mine was mega quick and easy because by the time my kids woke up it was almost dinner time!!!
Last year Kye and I attended an event where they made reindeer food so I thought it’d be a fun tradition to do each year with all the kids. It is EASY. All you need is oats and sprinkles!
Pour it all into baggies
And shake it up!!!
Britt didn’t want to feed it to the reindeer, she wanted to eat it for herself. I mean who likes uncooked oats?!?! This child keeps us laughing all the time!
While waiting on dinner they went on a little golf cart ride!
We were all about some multitasking…Casey wrote the family letter to Santa while the kids were in the bathtub. Kye told her word for word what to say 😉
After bath we set out our Santa cookies and letter for him!
I’m thankful when Colt and Payton got there later that night that we were able to put some out with them too…I didn’t get a picture of it but they were precious and so excited!
Traditional Christmas Eve hot cocoa
Haha Britt’s face is like she’s being sneaky 😉
Jordan LOVES getting crunk about stuff 🙂
With Mr. Rusty feeling fluish too he was being so thoughtful (but also hilarious) about wearing a mask non-stop. He didn’t want to get anyone else sick which was so nice of him! Even though he felt awful (he slept most of the afternoon and did break his fever) he still wanted to find Santa on the ipad to show the kids 🙂
Putting the reindeer food in the yard for them!
Before bed every year Mrs. Charlotte reads The Night Before Christmas
While she was reading it we heard something!!!
Santa’s bells!!! Hearing that meant he was getting close to G-Mama’s house and we had to hurry to get to bed!
The mystery facial expression mask…I bet he has a look of surprise under there too 😉
Being SO sweet to Aunt Casey and playing with her hair before bed!
One of my favorite things about Christmas Eve is tucking the kids in. It’s so exciting and fun and the anticipation for the next morning makes it so special. We told Kye when we tucked him in about the new baby in Mommy’s tummy and he was so sweet and so pumped about it 🙂
After the kids were in bed we waited for Courtney and Brad to get there so we could help put their kids to bed and such. Santa can’t come until everyone is asleep! While waiting the boys somehow stumbled across Zach’s 2007 National Championship Game (it was on ESPN)…and watched…the entire thing.
I was pretty much worn out at that point but perked up when the game ended. Sure, seeing Zach on National TV making big plays, jumping over dudes, and scoring touchdowns is cool. But seeing MYSELF on TV is way way cooler haha. Katie and I rushed the field after the game ended (well actually we rushed the field prior to the game ending oops haha) and ended up on TV ourselves. Our moment of fame 🙂 I made sure EVERYONE was watching (it was Jordan’s first time seeing the game I think!) and made them rewind and watch it in slow motion too haha
Merry Sickmas Eve! A year that will never be forgotten for sure 🙂
Next years Christmas card? hahaha
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