Brian's family does a yearly tradition called The Book Find. His parents buy each person in the family a book and wrap them all in different wrapping paper. On the night of the book find you get a piece of the wrapping paper that matches your book and you have to find it. It is always one of the most anticipated events of the Holiday season and was a lot of fun this year!
Miles got a Thomas book that has a little projector and slides with the story, Wesley got a Cat in the Hat book with a blanket/stuffed animal Cat. Sophie got a beautiful doll book that has fun pop up pictures and lots of facts and information on the Edwardian Era. She loves it. Nora got a fairy tale book on the 3 Billy Goats Gruff that came with a Cd. The girls both got cute bags as well. Brian got a book Stephen Covey and I got a sewing book! Thanks grandma and grandpa!
We did all this while skype-ing with the family in Utah and while we all had our backs turned towards the computer Wesley got a little too quiet....
and found the baby powder. He loves dumping out things lately! After the book find we went to the park! Which is something I'm sure we've never done on Christmas Eve! We took the stroller and the wagon and walked a few blocks down to "the blue park" as the kids call it.
This pond was very frozen and we took a few steps out on it to slide around, but not too far. Brian still remembers falling through the ice when he was young and having his brother save him. Scary.
When we got back from the park we had dinner, crepes, and then the kids got their Christmas Eve pajamas. Sophie even got a pair to match her doll, Sabrina. I made Santa Sacks this year so each of the kids leaves their sack on the couch and that is where Santa leaves his present for them. (I'm planning to make a bunch of re-usable ones for next year so there will be no wrapping paper next year!) I put their jammies in their Santa sacks.
The best part of the whole weekend happened on Christmas Eve. We read the nativity story, first in the scriptures while the kids acted it out, and then the kids all brought in blankets and pillows by the fire and we all snuggled up and sang Christmas songs and looked at a Christmas nativity board book together that has lots of pictures and the Christmas stories from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. And guess what? The kids actually listened to the whole thing! Miles stayed laying down and listening to it all and Wesley sat and looked at a book quietly. It was a wonderful evening that was pretty much perfect. Our own little Christmas miracle! 
Of course we let the 3 big kids all sleep together on the air mattress in the girls room. They were so excited but went to sleep pretty well and didn't wake up until about 6:30am.
