The Eves of Christmas

Christmas Eve Eve we hit the road with a pit stop at Uncle David's house for the night.  He has so many "toys" at his house it's almost like being at Santa's toy shop.  We had fun playing with his new train set that even emits syrup flavored steam.

Uncle David let the kids open their Christmas gifts.  Chase got a magic set and a build your own solar robot that he and Daddy got right to work building.

Sadi got a new art set which her and Kelsey both enjoyed using that evening.

Besides all the toys at David's house he also has bowls of candy EVERYWHERE.  He told the kids to help themselves to anything they wanted...which they were not shy about doing so our sugar level was pretty high that evening.

We all enjoyed playing/watching the pool tournaments in progress throughout the night.

CHRISTMAS EVE:  We left Uncle David's and headed to Anaheim which is just a few hours drive from his house.  We arrived too early to check into our hotel and so we headed to downtown Disney to window shop and to take in all the sights and smells of Christmas.  Such a magical feeling there, I love it!

We headed to our hotel later in the afternoon and checked out the "elf approved" hotel.

It had a good size living area with table and chairs, and we were surprised to find that it was a two room suite.  The kids had their own room and bathroom!  Sadi was in heaven...she may have been more excited that anyone. 

I was in love with this full size kitchen!  I almost wished we were there long enough to cook in it....almost.

We ordered pizza for dinner and then started our traditional Christmas eve games.  Each of us comes up with a Christmas themed game for the family to play.  Sadi had Christmas charades.  This has become one of her favorites that we have played the last few years.  She keeps us guessing a lot with her clues.

This year I came up with the Christmas wrap game.  You had to roll a certain number on the dice and then you got to unwrap the saran wrap ball.  If you were lucky you unraveled a little Christmas treat.

Chase made a game board of Don't eat Santa (played like the game of don't eat Pete).

Kelsey made a Christmas heads up version which was so fun. Matt pulled a last minute game...literally last minute.  He had to run down to the hotel gift shop to buy a deck of cards so we could play spoons.

The kids begged to give their gifts to each other.  I was a bit torn (it not really being Christmas officially) but we caved and decided to do gift exchange which in the morning I was so glad we had since we were rushed to get up and catch our bus.

I have to say the lighting in the hotel was terrible and made it difficult to get ANY pictures.  Chase was so excited to give Kelsey this gift he had picked out, gel pens and note cards.  It was funny because over Thanksgiving break she was debating buying note cards she needed but was feeling to poor.

Sadi gave Chase some new Pokemon cards.

Chase picked a gift he knew Sadi would love, her very own box of chocolates. 

Kelsey got a few surprises from Mom and Dad.: a new blanket, Starbucks card, and new down jacket which she enjoyed wearing over the next few chilly days in the park. 

Sadi got some new clothes, and more Shopkins! 

Chase got some new clothes, and more Pokemon cards than I'm sure he needs.

Matt received some new shirts from Kelsey, Chase bought him his own little stash of chips and nuts, and Sadi gave him this little bag of quarters with a 1 free car wash coupon.

I received some amazing gifts from everyone.  Kelsey gave me a new movie, chocolate, and bubble bath which we all enjoyed during the trip.  Matt bought me some new perfume I had mentioned I loved wearing.  Sadi made me this special coupon book full of all kinds of treats.  We all had to laugh when the last page coupon said 1 free wine pour...also included a hard soda made out of paper.

Chase made me a paper poinsettia, and 2 new ornaments for the tree.  I'm so excited to hang these up.

We tried to wrap up the night a bit early so we would be well rested for our Christmas in the park.  We were just about to drift off to sleep when Sadi burst into our room to announce she had lost a tooth....making it quite a bit later than planned before we were all fast asleep.