Ginger Bread Houses, Traditions, and Gifts

Christmas Eve was one of my favorite days in California. We spent almost the whole day outside. One of my favorite things we all did together was build gingerbread houses (I hope this becomes a tradition). After the prep work had been completed and the little girls spent a little bit of time decorating their houses and sneaking pieces of candy. After a while their interest wore thin and the moms took over. It was so fun and the outcome of all the houses was great. By the time we left most of the houses were beginning to get disassembled by little fingers.

Christmas Eve night the tradition of getting PJs continued along with a visit from Santa Papa who had a little treat for each of his grandkids in his bag. After the PJs were on it was up to the Bird's Nest to decorate their very own Christmas tree. Gig was very thoughtful and not only had princess girly ornaments, but trucks and airplanes for Jacob to put on as well. It was a very relaxed and special evening. We did miss out on the Christmas Eve service with so many kids and families arriving from different time zones it just was not in the cards.

Christmas morning we woke up and got all pretty then opened stockings, had a delicious breakfast (the Kavaliches know how to do food!), then headed in to the living room for giftapalooza. Claire is now set with rooms for her dollhouse, Jacob got some fun toys he will grow to love, Allan got a PS3, and I got a Kindle. The most fun gift of the day will actually always stay at Papa and Mimi's house. After all the kids had finished opening their presents they were told to go outside and cover their eyes for the big reveal. They were speechless when they saw the Barbie Jeep. They proceeded to drive the wheels off of it for the next few hours.