Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was wonderful and full of family, of course! I usually rely on my journal to help me write these, but I mostly just wrote that it was a wonderful day spent with so many loved ones! I took a lot of pictures though! I will try to caption what I remember.

Darling Felicity Jane!

Julie & I

Lily loved this mistletoe ornament! It is made with a tiny tennis ball.

I caught Paul mid-sentence, apparently!

Felicity, Lily and Paul playing play doh with Mimi and Papa! Please also notice Paul playing with that teapot. I think maybe that has been is all-time favorite toy. He got it for his first birthday, having already loved it at Mimi's house. He played with it all the time. It broke a few months later, I couldn't fix it, so I sent an email to Fisher Price and they replaced it for me. I think we finally put it away when we moved from Memphis to Nashville to save for future children, but every time he sees this teapot -- at Mimi's house or at the store (we occasionally let him play with the toys in the Target aisle) -- he is drawn to it! He has to play with it. He loves it. Maybe when we move again in May we will have to dig it back out for him.

Paul had to wear his train vest! Dreaming of trains for Christmas.

Eating some yummy Richardson family treats -- Aunt Madeline cookies.

Because Christmas Eve mass is always packed, we have to arrive very early so we can get a seat and sit with the rest of the family. The church was so beautiful, I just had to sneak a shot (well before mass began). It was actually a relaxing wait because Paul saw Doug sitting at the next pew  and went to talk to him for a while. We couldn't hear what they were talking about, but Paul was talking a lot and was very animated! It was very cute. After mass, we went to Maymay and Uncle Charlie's house. They had a delicious spread (although I made sure to save room for the next event) and so many toys for the kids to play with!

Michael and Doug

Andrew, Julie, myself, Michael, Doug and Chase

Now with Ashley! I love how we just kept adding to this group for pictures!

The beautiful Sowell family!

Cousins picture! Again, this was a very difficult task.

I'm not sure why, but Annabelle was hiding!

Kenzie and Paul with baby Savannah! They both seemed preoccupied with the baby!

After spending about an hour with the Caldwells, we went to my aunt's house for my family's traditional Christmas Eve. We had oyster file gumbo, a dish that my uncle's mother (a Pensacola native) always made for Christmas Eve. I don't eat the oysters, but there is chicken too, and it is delicious! We all love it! After eating that, and plenty of other food, too, we sat down to pass out and open Christmas presents.

Michael and Joycie

Paul dancing (probably).

Hershey all decked out in his Christmas sweater!

Acey passing out Christmas presents!

Paul had quite a pile of presents!

A travel train set from Shawn! Perfect for Paul, who has been saying he wants trains for Christmas every chance he gets!

Books! We love books in our house!

Cute boy making a silly face!

This year, Acey and Hunter introduced Paul to the art of a selfie. They spent quite a bit of time sitting on the couch posing with silly faces for selfies. I had to cut a lot of these pictures because there were so many! (I took pictures of them taking pictures of themselves...)

And they begin!

Acey and Hunter are checking out the picture, but Paul is still in selfie posing mode, sticking his tongue out.

Paul was laughing so hard! It was very cute.

So cute!

Around 8 or a little later we headed back to Mimi and Papa's house to put out cookies for Santa and get ready for bed and for Christmas! We read The Night Before Christmas, so Paul knew he needed to hang his stocking up. He also hung up ours and the cats'.

He set out cookies and milk for Santa, as well as carrots for the reindeer. He even left his trains out (Thomas and Duncan) to remind Santa what he wanted for Christmas.

Now all that was left was to go to sleep and wake up in the morning to see if Santa came!