Christmas Eve Pj's!

I love Christmas Eve. It must be the traditions. There is something so comforting about traditions and carrying them on. Every Christmas Eve since I can remember my Mom and Dad always gave my siblings and I a new set of PJ's, and a special toy/stuffed animal. My special gift was almost always a stuffed animal, in fact I still have a few of my favorite that were given to me on Christmas Eve, tucked away in one of the boys toy bins. So when I had children I knew I wanted to carry on the tradition. A tradition I still enjoy because my Mom always spoils me with a new pair of PJ's even now that I am "all grown up". For some reason this one gift reminds me that no matter how big I am, or how many years have gone by, I still am their little girl, which is comforting on so many levels.

This Christmas Eve, my parents came over to our house, as they have since Zach was born, we enjoyed some Chinese food, and watching the boys excitement, and then my Mom gave me my Pj's

She of course couldn't come without a little something for the boys too:

Another unspoken tradition is that if you love your Christmas jammies, you put them on immediately. Seriously there is footage of me as a kid literally undressing the moment I received them...sort of embarassing, but serious shows my excitement over the Pjs! Unfortunately, my boys were not as thrilled about their Christmas Pj's. They were more interested in the new Geo Trax that Grandma and Papa brought. At first I thought I was the only one who was psyched about the new Scooby Pj's I'd gotten Z, and the footed reindeer Pj's Matt was going to rock that evening. (You'll note in the rest of the pictures, I am wearing my Pj's...traditions are traditions after all, even if I was the only one into it!):

Since neither of the boys seemed interested in their Ugly Dolls...I posed for a pic with Dave and Ket:

Then slowly...the boys warmed up to the idea of getting their jammies on. Zach reluctantly posed for this jammie picture, while Matt refused:

He was too busy trying to get Papa to play trains with him...or give him his coffee!:

Eventually Matt was willing to do a little posing in his jammies:

They both were so thrilled to put out the cookies and carrots and milk and water for Santa and the reindeers. Just look at them in their jammies, waiting for the magic of Christmas to arrive! I dare say it might be better to watch that gleam in your child's eyes more than it was to have it in yours!

And while these two slept, Santa did in fact arrive. What a beautiful sight this is to see it all come together.

(Thanks Mom for taking the pictures, I'm sorry you fell victim to the Mom curse of never being in a photo that night!) Stay tuned for more Christmas fun!