Christmas Eve

The Torry Family celebrates Christmas Eve so we spent most of the day at Paw Paw and Gigi's. Santa left a fishing rod and a push car unwrapped by the tree and the kids went straight to them. Paw Paw taught Willem how to fish inside. By the end he had properly twisted the string enough to give Paw Paw something to do for awhile during his retirement. But he is very excited to go to a lake soon.

Willem had wrapped a lot of the presents with us, so he was really excited to see people open the gifts he had wrapped or picked out.

Thank goodness for Cassady. Willem loves playing with his cousin and being the first grandchild, she is his only playmate besides Ellie. Those two played for hours.

A quiet moment in the day

Willem was asked to be the donkey in the Children's Service on Christmas Eve. The service was beautiful and Willem had our family in stitches. I wasn't sure how he would like being in front of everyone at Church as it was a completely packed room, but he seemed to think nothing of it.

Upon getting up in front he quickly took his hat off. Then he sat down for awhile. Then he started trying to talk to us while we were several rows back in the Church. Then he whispered something to Cristina(the person who was directing them) and he walked off the stage and came to us and said he had to go potty.

Upon his return from the potty he gave his shepherd something to do. All in all, he had fun, we had a good laugh and he was asked back next year.

Jason made the traditional soup for Christmas Eve. This year it was Vegetable Chicken Soup. The soup was delicious and Lita guessed the mystery ingredient of Peanut Butter.

Matching PJ's. Not sure why this is our Christmas Eve tradition but it's so darn cute.

Willem studying how Santa will be arriving. We've read this book many times leading up to Christmas Eve, but it was nice reading it as a family.

Setting out the cookies and carrots for Santa and the Reindeer.