Christmas Eve 2014

Christmas Eve is my very favorite part of the holiday season.  The Christmas lights glow softly, the presents are all stacked under the tree, and the house is filled with the wonderful smells of a delicious Christmas Eve dinner!

Before everyone got to our house, the girls posed (nicely!) for photos in front of the tree.  (Notice how no one is screaming in these pictures?  Next year I think I'll skip Union Station and just do photos at home!)

Before long, Uncle Adam and Aunt Megan (and Baby Earl) arrived. Grammie and PaPa also came, bringing my cousins Natalie and Dashiell with them!  I was really, really bad and somehow let Christmas Eve get past without taking an Archer family photo, but I DID get pictures of the girls with my cousins!  Kate was busy trying to flirt with Dashiell instead of looking at the camera, though.

The girls got to open their presents from Natalie, Dashiell, and Aunt Anita before bed.  (Kate loved her sensory book, and Sarah was super excited about her otter book and princess stamp set.)  Then we just hung out and enjoyed spending time with our family on Christmas Eve!

I took some more pictures of the girls in their pajamas in front of the tree, and then it was time to put out cookies for Santa and head to bed.

It took a while to calm down enough to go to sleep, but the promise of presents from Santa in the morning was a powerful incentive to try our best!