Neeleyfam

I love the magic of Christmas in our home. The kids are at such fun ages right now! One of our favorite traditions is wrapping all of the Christmas books we have received in the past and opening one a night starting in December until we end with the classic "Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve.

Some other fun things that happened during the season was seeing Emily in her Piano Performance. She played two solos, both memorized. It is so amazing to see how much progress she is making and when I asked her if she was scared she said, "not really." She is such a beautiful little girl and it is so fun to see her perform. Here she is with her teacher and the other students.

We also made some yummy peppermint cookies in the shape of candy canes and some homemade peanut butter cups and chocolate dipped pretzels with peanut butter in the middle. I love that Mike was able to get some extra boxes at work so we could give our neighbors a delicious gift that looked nice too!

For the last three years we have been having Christmas Eve with just our little family. I love it. I love that we can spend time together and have a good time before the craziness in the morning. Mike's parents joined us this year. It was nice to have someone actually enjoy the meal we made. The kids are too excited to eat :)

Mike made an awesome Prime rib, it was a hit! I made the rolls you can see in the background. We also had mashed potatoes, corn and jello.
Here the kids are about ready to open their Christmas Jammies. Trust me, they looked adorable. I didn't remember to get a pic of them in their jammies that night. After dinner Emily and Brett preformed for Granny and Grandpa and then set out some cookies and egg nog and went to bed in record time. The magic of Christmas was in the air and they could not wait to get into bed, they didn't want Santa to pass them by.