Christmas Eve

Ho Ho Ho … who would’t go? Christmas season is such a blessed occasion around the Ronnebeck household, I can’t say enough about our traditions that we’ve created as a couple, and the love that is poured into everything we do during the holiday season.

Wednesday evening (as previously mentioned) we built our gingerbread house. Normally we build it out of sugar cookie brought to you by Toll house or Pillsbury but this year we got a nice big roll of gingerbread cookies from Pillsbury so we made an actual gingerbread house. It turned out pretty good! Gingerbread was actually a lot easier to work with, and tasty too! So I think we’ll probably go this route in the years to come. We almost didn’t get around to it, and at the last minute we squeezed it in!

Thursday was a crazy day at work, we squeezed in an 8 hour day in 6 hours. Eric came to pick me up at 2 (when I got off) and we headed to Uwajimaya to pick up his Christmas Day feast which was still swimming in a tank. Once we picked up the crab we dropped by my friend Mariya’s house to say hello to her cats as her and Rob are in Colorado for Christmas, and then we went to Safeway and stood in line for 25 minutes to pick up just a few things we needed to complete our Christmas feast. Never again will I shop for anything on Christmas eve; CRAZY!

Before our night got too busy, I forced my family to family photos - Aquaman is the only one even slightly enthused by the whole ordeal, but they all put up with it because they love me.

The first one is me testing the tripod set up with Aquaman, then the following ensues...

One good one where the dog is trying desperately to get over and lick the cat, and the cat is howling like we're trying to pull out her claws one by one. And then there's about 12 more that Eric hates because "my smile looks funny" or the dog has gotten too close to the cat, and I'm getting clawed so my mouth is wide open... Please see my previous diatribe about "The perfect family photo" You would think by now, I've learned my lesson.
Here's the "Eric we've got to smooch in this one" picture... ♥
And this is what I get when I want the kids to take a photo together... I get the pissed off cat in the corner, and the dog ready to do whatever I want him to do for "Treats" ... did SOMEONE SAY TREATS?!?!?!?!?!

Here's our stockings hung on the wall with care... we really need to find a fake fireplace! A little side story about our stockings...Eric’s Aunt Sue made these snowman stockings for him and his mom when he was little. He has had his stocking for years and years. He is so in love with his snowman stocking and it holds a lot of sentimental value for him. Our first Christmas together, we got me a snowman stocking that didn’t come close to matching it but at least we both had snowmen. Last year, Eric’s Mom took her name off the matching snowman stocking that Aunt Sue made and put my name on it and gave it to me for Christmas… I’ll stop talking now, tears will well… It’s so touching to have a family heirloom, It makes me feel like I belong in this family.

I digress...

Eric made his crab and then we stopped down to our neighbor Ute’s house for some snacks and a glass of wine as is her tradition to have family and friends over on Christmas eve. After visiting awhile we went back home and Ivan and Dawn stopped over to give us our Christmas gifts. They gave Eric a neat pop-up book and me a few owls, which are beautiful and kind of hard to explain. They stayed and visited for awhile and then we had to kick them out so we could go to church service at 11pm. Not sure how I survived that one, it was a long day. We went to Resurrection Lutheran for the service. It was fun to be in a new church environment; the pastor’s sermon was phenomenal and was exactly what Eric and I needed to hear. It was weird being the 'new kids' in church - seemed as if everyone knew everyone, and we were definitely the one's they'd talk about after service "did anyone know the young couple in the back?" either way, I love Candlelight service on Christmas Eve, it makes me so happy and at peace with the world.
After church we went home, snuggled in and read our Christmas story under the Christmas tree and then I headed straight to bed. I was asleep in seconds, visions of egg nog danced in my head.