christmas eve

saturday, dec 24: in the afternoon my sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids came over for the fun and festivities. we never wait until christmas morning to open gifts (well, to be honest, i never actually see christmas morning because i usually sleep till about noon!) we typically open gifts on christmas eve night.
anyway, they came over and we hung out for a while and then we had an early dinner. it was really great, my mom decided to personalize it and made each of us one of our favorite foods. my dad got that orange jello stuff he always likes, my sister got some kind of wierd salad she always likes, etc. it was a really nice dinner.
after dinner we got ready to go to the candle light service at my parents church. we got there and i soon realized it was going to be my responsability to watch my three year old nephew through out the service. yikes. he actually behaved himself fairly well. but the thing that i was struck by was how much he actually picks up on- that little guy is getting smart! i just kept watching him and laughing at the things he would do or say. he would love to watch the singers and band members while we sang and he would like to just look around during the sermon (or he would like to drop his toys and cause a racket...)
after church we headed back home and did the whole opening presents thing. it was a lot of fun. it was nice to get all that stuff, but the best part of the night was just hanging out with the family, cracking jokes, and remembering the old times.