Christmas Eve Traditions

Every year before we leave our house on Christmas Eve night to head over to Grannie and Grandpa Winkelmann's house we have a few family traditions. First of all, this year was the first year that Dalton really got into the whole Santa, Reindeer and Wish List concepts of Christmas. It truely was magical. I hope this stage lasts for years to come. For Dalton it was important that Santa's reindeer know where to land Christmas Eve night. Dalton and Mallory enjoyed sprinkling reindeer dust in the lawn.

After leaving a landing strip for the reindeer we went back inside to find that Santa's elves left two presents, one for Mallory and one for Dalton, hence the bows. Dalton learned quickly that Santa's elves are sneaky and don't want to be seen. To their surprise they each got new Christmas PJs to wear to bed for Christmas morning. (A tradition we started with Dalton for his 1st Christmas)

After they opened their gifts it was time to leave milk and cookies for Santa's arrival. I think they both enjoyed eating the cookies more. Poor Mallory could not make up her mind: leave the cookie or eat it...what to do? Dalton wanted to pile the plate full. We finally conviced them two cookies was perfect: one from Mallory and one from Dalton.

 My attempt at a picture in front of the tree before we left.