Christmas Eve-2012

This year for Christmas we had a very special guest come stay with us...Grandpa E! We were so excited to have him with us, especially Eli. He doesn't get to see Grandpa E that much so when he does come to visit, he is the only one in Eli's world. I don't think Grandpa E would have it any other way either :)

Christmas Eve was a very busy day for us. First, we had to prepare the magic reindeer food. Eli put in lots of sugar for the reindeer so they would have tons of energy to fly Christmas Eve. 

Then we went to lunch with Grandpa E at Ruby Tuesday's, got a blizzard on the way home, and came home and crashed. Once we all got up, it was time to make cookies for Santa. My little helper came to assist me :)

Three generations of Wilson men

Once all the cookies were cut out and on the baking sheet, it was time to decorate them with sugar sprinkles. Eli really liked this part!

Ready to go in the oven!

Once the cookies were baked and we had eaten our supper, it was time to go look at Christmas lights. Our first stop was our town's giant Christmas tree. Eli loves looking at it at night so we had to go see it up close.

Then it was time to go down to the riverfront to look at the Christmas displays by the river. This is one of my favorite things our city does at Christmas time. My favorite display is the manger scene. I love that our city shows that Jesus is still the reason we celebrate Christmas!

Here are some pictures of my other favorite displays. They are all handmade and have moving parts. Some men that worked at the paper plant a long time ago made them and a few years ago the city repaired them and began using them as a Christmas display along the river.

When we got home it was bedtime for little man, but first we had to go put the reindeer food on the ground. We didn't want the reindeer to be hungry when they landed at our house.

He said the flash was too bright :)

Once the reindeer were taken care of, it was time to pick out which cookies he was going to put on Santa's plate. 

We poured Santa a nice, cold glass of milk and then it was time for one more picture before bed.

Eli said goodbye to Elfis since it was his last night with us. He was actually quite sad about Elfis leaving, but was okay once he realized that Santa was on his way to our house.

He hurried and rushed to bed so we could read our last two Christmas books "Christmas in the Barn" and "The Night Before Christmas". We said prayers and then our little man snuggled under the covers and went to sleep. He couldn't wait for the next morning!