back to catching up: christmas eve

christmas eve was another great day. we hung out together in the morning, played with chester, good family time. erik and isabelle took nina to the store with them, which she loved. she's such a big girl!

later, erik, isabelle, nick, and i cooked a yummy seafood newburg lasagna. well, erik and i did the lasagna, isabelle did the salad and grated the chees, and nick de-tailed the shrimp. boy it was good! then the 4 of us took the girls to church while mom and dad stayed behind to get dinner in the over. maggie was a bit feistier than usual but managed to make it through mass. by the skin of her teeth! when we went up for communion, she saw the nativity scene set up on the right side of the church. we stopped there and looked at it, she loved that there was a horse (actually i think it was a donkey but i didn't say anything). 'perfect,' i thought to myself. 'there are chairs here, we'll ride out the last few minutes looking at the nativity scene.' but THEN she noticed that there was a christmas tree on the altar. she tried to make a run for it. i grabbed her. the priest was this close to the closing prayer. maggie was about to scream. tense! then he said "go now in peace" and maggie made her break. father laughed and said "good timing." i asked if we could stand by the tree and he said sure. whew, it was definitely a close call. good thing she's so darn cute!

after dinner, the girls got to open one present (it's a family tradition). i had picked out their robes as the present so that they could wear them on christmas morning. and they loved them. "in the robe!!!!" said maggie. they wear them all the time!