christmas eve

We decided that this year we'd start celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as our own little family at our own home, and maybe sometimes we'll invite friends or family to join us, but we're starting our own traditions. A lot of people wait until they have more kids to start doing their own thing, but idk, I just wanted to start now, with our one kid :)

We only had one church meeting on Christmas Eve, so that meant we had pretty much a whole Sunday together. We honestly didn't do much throughout the day. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Russ took steps throughout the day to make rustic Italian bread for dinner, and we mostly just enjoyed being together.

In the evening, I started pulling everything together for a special dinner. We (maybe just I haha) decided that our traditional Christmas Eve dinner would be a "Bethlehem Dinner." The idea is to eat foods that they may have eaten at that time, eat by candlelight (the lights were on for the following picture, but then we turned them off) dress up like shepherds, and discuss the Nativity as though it's your current news -- really immerse yourself into the era.

We had quite the spread of foods: olives, hummus, figs, prunes, nuts, tomatoes, grapes, grape juice, cheese (cheddar, gouda, havarti), meats (salami, pepperoni, summer sausage), crackers ("flatbread"), Italian bread, olive oil, and vinegar.

We decided that next year, we'll simplify a bit and remove the foods we really don't like. Maybe we'll have them every few years so our kids get chances to try them. Foods we'll stick with are: olives, grapes, grape juice, cheese, meats, crackers, bread, olive oil, and vinegar. I think instead of cheese blocks, I might just go with a pre-cut variety pack to save time and effort haha.

she was hungry and dinner was late -- not a happy camper!
but she was the cutest little shepherd nonetheless :)

 

 

Russ and I traded off telling the Nativity story to Ada, which actually felt kind of awkward! Haha I guess I need more practice TELLING the story :)

After dinner, we put Ada to bed. We read in Luke 2 for our nightly scripture study with her.

After Ada went to bed, we put on Elf and watched while we wrapped Ada's presents. Although we've decided to do only one gift from Santa, I don't want to put presents out until after kids are asleep on Christmas Eve. As a kid, I loved going to bed with just a few presents under the tree, and then waking up to an avalanche of presents under the tree! With just one kid, it wasn't quite an avalanche, but it was a good start :)

It was a pretty perfect Christmas Eve, and I want to create that kind of Christmas Eve every year. I want our focus with the family to be on our Savior and His birth, and then I want to enjoy a Christmas movie with Russ while we finish up Christmas preparations. I want to be prepared enough already for Christmas morning that there isn't a ton to do on Christmas Eve (in case it was confusing above, I'm fine wrapping presents before Christmas Eve, I just don't want to put them out until Christmas Eve, so the wrapping could have already been done, it just wasn't this year). I want to enjoy the evening, and I want to smile in anticipation of the magic to come on Christmas morning :)