Christmas Eve Traditions - 2019

The past few years have seen a few new traditions that we now do as a family on Christmas Eve.

We attend one of the afternoon Christmas Eve Candlelight services at church, followed by a great family dinner at Texas Roadhouse. We love snapping a family picture while at church.

The kids started a Secret Santa exchange last year. They loved it so much that they decided to continue doing it. After giving the kids their new ornaments over Thanksgiving weekend, they drew names and went to work - finding gift ideas for their exchange.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve - they get to exchange their gifts!

Maddie got Alex's name - she bought her an Alfredo the Hedgehog.

Alex got Maddie! She got sharpies and beach balls (she loves to use them to play volleyball around the house).

Not sure what was so funny - but I love the smiles and laughter shared by all 4.

Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who opens next...

Kaitee won! Will gave her a Pop Funko figure from one of her favorite shows, Miraculous.

Last to open, Will got 2 sets of headphones from Kaitee. He goes through headphones ALMOST as much as he goes through a box of bandaids!

Another fun Christmas Eve - family time at its best! We ended our evening by watching a few Christmas movies.

More Christmas Togetherness 2019

This Christmas season went by very quick, in some ways it didn't even seem like it was Christmas! Between the kids' school schedules and Matt's work, it seemed like our windows of time to do our annual traditions were small. We were able to accomplish some things and had to be content with that.

After putting up the tree, we try to snap our family picture. This is something that we started when Kaitee was a toddler and have done almost every year since. It's fun to look back at the pictures and see how the family has grown. Of course, we have to reward the "good" picture with a funny picture!

I loved finding these pictures on the camera as I uploaded them to the computer...

I love taking pictures of the different items around the house during Christmas. I also enjoy sitting on the couch with my feet up, soft Christmas music playing in the background and just simply enjoying the beauty of the lights.

We did do a bit of driving to enjoy some lights throughout the area. We stopped in Kewanee one evening to walk around Windmont Park. Of course, we can't drive to Kewanee without stopping in Annawan for a yummy treat at Paxton's Corner Coop. We always enjoy their decorations as well.

Another evening we enjoyed a handful of the "dancing light" houses in the area as well as a quick trip up the river to drive through the Symphony of Lights in Clinton (we even tried out a new pizza place!). Coming back home, we were amazed at the beautiful tree outside of John Deere Headquarters. We ended our evening around 10:30 at Henry's Christmas Yard.

We spent an evening in Dubuque - visiting the "Reflections in the Park" drive through light display. We also found this crazy Griswald house!

Lastly, we spent an evening outside. We watched the "dancing lights" at Fejervary Park and then walked around Vandeveer Park.

We love Christmas and the many traditions that come with the season. This past year was a bit harder due to schedules and a shortened time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We made the most of our time together - realizing that sometimes it is okay to let a tradition go for the time being.