'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

Christmas is always an exciting time of year with decorations to put up, my goal to find everyone the perfect gift, parties and of course, celebrations with family. It all began on Christmas Eve with the extended Olafsson family (my parents also joined us) dinner. The meal was delicious and it was so fun to see some of Erik's cousins and to spend the evening together.

This year was even more fun thanks to our new bundle of joy, Claire. As the newest member of the family, she got to play baby Jesus in the nativity. It had been a very long, napless evening for her so of course, there was some crying involved. The best part was when Claire's cousin Emily, who was playing Mary, placed Claire in the manger upside down. We all couldn't stop laughing, it was so cute.

Dinner came to an end with an annual Norwegian tradition. An almond is placed in a bowl of pudding and everyone takes one scoop in hopes of getting the almond in their bowl. Whoever gets it, wins a chocolate Santa. There were two bowls this year and Emily and her brother Benjamin both got the almonds. It was so cute to see how excited they were.

Once we finally made it home, Claire opened her first present, which was a pair of red pajamas. Even though it was such a long day, she was all smiles. I must have taken at least ten pictures and she had a big smile in every one of them. I was so excited to start some of the Christmas traditions that I took part in as a child with Claire. I wanted to put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer just for fun, but I thought I'd wait until she had a little idea as to what was going on. Maybe next year. :) With her brand new pajamas on, it was finally time for bed. We all needed to rest up for the big day ahead of us.