Here Comes Santa!!

Christmas Eve was filled with getting ready for Santa. We stayed at Grandma's till around 7:30 or so, and Annabel was still awake when we got home, which really surprised me (no naps for her at all that day!), but she was also super excited for Santa to come, so there's that! First, Daniel ran and grabbed Santa's special key off of the tree for our front door. He let Annabel hang it, but ended up having to do it for her since she's just a tad too short to really reach comfortably as you can see in the pictures.

Then we had to get Santa's plate of cookies ready. The kids each put out a couple cookies for him. Daniel wanted to leave hot chocolate out for Santa instead of milk (so cute!) so we left a hot chocolate packet for him to use. And then he'd had the idea while at Grandma Mary Kay's to leave carrots for the reindeer- 8 of them, one for each reindeer. He had also said he wanted to leave a note for Santa telling him the carrots were for the reindeer not him; we forgot this bit by the time we came around to doing this, and well let me tell you Daniel remembered the next morning that we forgot and he worriedly exclaimed, "Mommy! Santa ate all the carrots! We forgot to leave him a note!" I assured him that I'm sure Santa knew the carrots were for the reindeer.

Next up was story time- our tradition of reading The Night Before Christmas and The Pajama Elves continued, though Daniel, about halfway through reading The Night Before Christmas, noticed the Pajama Elves book in my lap and immediately looked under his pillowcase where the pajamas were hidden last year and were hiding again this year...I should have stuck to my guns and read that one first like I wanted to do, but Daniel had insisted on the other one first...oh well, his reaction was still just as awesome! The elves may just have to be a little more creative next year and find a way to surprise both kids, too!

Annabel tries to hang Santa's key!

 Daniel helps out!

Getting Santa's cookies out!

And now the carrots for the reindeer! The kids very carefully counted them out.

All set for Santa!

Snuggling up to read our Christmas Eve stories!

 Daniel sneaks a peek under his pillow- the Pajama Elves have been here!

With the kids now in their matching gingerbread pajamas, I read the story of the Pajama Elves. Love this picture.

And last but not least, a wonderful Christmas Eve goodnight hug!

Here are two videos to enjoy! The first video is of the kids counting out the carrots for the reindeer (plus one extra, for Rudolph perhaps?!) and the second video is of my crazy excited tired kids singing and dancing all crazy- too funny! Annabel is always making up and singing songs- she really hardly ever stops!