I had been looking forward to this night for such a long time! We hadn't had a chance to see Jeff & Julie and their kids for months. Their youngest is getting so big! She'll be two next month. (ay caramba).
We exchanged gifts and gave the kids their presents. It was so great to see their smiling faces tearing through tissue and wrapping paper with the greatest of ease. I have to tell you, I did the same. Jeff & Julie got us such a thoughtful gift! They gave us two fleece blankets, an awesome hot chocolate gift set....complete with mugs, marshmallows, and cocoa powder (yum!), and the last item to be opened was our very own copy of: 'The Notebook'!!!! Can you believe it? Julie said that she read my blog, and immediately thought of getting the movie for us. She found it, and it was the store's last copy. Soon after the gifts were exchanged, Jeff took peeled and boiled potatoes and shredded them to make latkes with. Along with that, they had "pulled" chicken simmering in the crock pot in chicken broth, a home made veggie tray, and for dessert.....Kathy's home made cookies. Holy cow! (no lie......my pants were a little snug this morning........but honestly, it was sooo worth it!).
While we ate, Meagan and Julie played a Twilight board game we got for her, and Lena was busy painting all of us pictures, while Patrick kept getting his remote control helicopter stuck under the Christmas tree. Katie was running between her brother and sisters, wanting to see what everyone was playing with. I was in heaven watching the kids have a fantastic time. Their exuberance and innocence are so refreshing, and even more-so around the holidays.
Not too long after the presents were open and dinner was cleaned up, it was bed time for the kids. Jeff was getting text updates from Santa every 30 minutes or so, and the kids hurried to get into bed so Santa could drop off their gifts without being seen. After they got into bed, Julie and I left the big boys to play Wii, and we holed ourselves up in the den to wrap everyone's gifts. About two to two-and-a-half hours later we emerged victorious at getting everything wrapped. The only thing left to fill were the stockings by the fireplace. When we got out of the room, we found Adam watching tv, and Katie fast asleep on daddy Jeff's lap. (daddy was snoozing a little too.....sssshhhhhhh........i promised i wouldn't say anything.) While we were bringing the presents out to put under the tree, Lena woke up and wanted to know if Santa had brought the presents yet. Julie went in to talk to Lena while Adam, Jeff & I were grabbing gifts left and right trying to get them under the tree in case little ones wanted to see if Santa had come yet. We were lucky, we put them all down before four sets of little feet starting running down the hallway to see. (crisis averted!)
Adam and I were beat, so we grabbed our jackets, and said our good byes. I was up pretty early this morning running errands with mom, so I was exhausted when we got in the car. I pretty much passed out in the car for the entire ride back to our house. (poor Adam......first Jeff, then me). We opened the door and within ten minutes, we were under the covers and ready to sleep.
As I stated before in a previous post, going to Jeff & Julie's on Christmas Eve is a tradition I am really enjoying. Hopefully we can do this for many more years to come.
Jeff, Julie......I hope the kids had a blast opening up their gifts!!! And I REALLY hope they didn't wake you up too early this morning to do it!
Thank you both again for everything! Oh, and Julie, thanks for being the best euchre partner I could ever ask for!
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas, and an early Happy New Year! I can't believe 2010 is right around the corner!
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