Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition includes snacks, church, sub sandwiches, and a gift from "Santa."  This year my sister hosted Christmas Eve so we went to her house for snacks and then we ventured off to her church, The Village, for the service.

My sister found these kid size Solo cups at the store so Hunter enjoyed playing with his.

Dad do I have to look at the camera?

 Dad, really, I'm trying to eat my snack.

 And finally, there's both of them!

 Before we left for the service we took some family photos.  Here are the Mauritzen's.

Here's our first failed shot.

 Success!

After our photos, we went to the service and at the last minute we decided not to put Hunter in childcare.  We knew he would be fine during the music it was just the quiet moments we were worried about.  We weren't prepared for there to be a thirty minute sermon though!  But we had plenty of Cheerios that kept Hunter entertained.  And every now and then we would let him play with the unlit candles.  I only heard half the message but what I did hear was great.  And praise the Lord Hunter made it the whole hour.  Yes, one hour!

We went back to the house after the service for sub sandwiches.  It may be weird to some but our mentality is that we always eat light the day before our big feast.

Apparently Baby Mauritzen requested our mom's famous Italian Cream Cake.  Famous in our family, of course.  And you can't argue with Baby Mauritzen!  It was delicious!