The Zyriek Zoo: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was relaxed and fun for us. Gary's mom was in town and my parents were planning to attend services @ Hope with us. I was preparing the Christmas Eve dinner to eat when we arrived home from church. The girls were WILD all day and were truly excited about the surprises that would unfold overnight with a visit from Santa. The church service was very nice and it had lots of favorites. Anna enjoyed it while sitting beside her good friend Mckayla. Dinner was yummy (if I do say so myself) and we all had full bellies.

After dinner we were treated to a rendition of the Christmas Story by Gary (Joseph), Anna (Mary) and Caroline (Baby Jesus). It was so cute. They even had costumes, props and a script. They had been working on it for over a week while I had been working late. So cute and waht a treasure to see the story mean so much to the girls.

Mary really wanted to go out and see some Christmas lights. We heard about a house in Bartlett that had 7 choreographed songs and lights galore. Boy, did we find it! Cars were lined up all up and down the street. We stayed for the light/music show and were glad that we did. It was amazing. Cannot imagine how much labor went into this gift to the community! Afterwards we drove through starry nights. Mary enjoyed it and so we were glad we did that as well. Back home to make our Christmas cookies for Santa and to get ready for bed. While the girls put on their pajamas and got the cookies in the oven, Caroline decided to go in the bathroom and cut her own hair! I was thrilled to see the left side of her hair shorter by a few inches. She even looks like a mini-mullet on that side. I think she really did not think it was that big of a deal. It was not until the next day when Santa wrote in her letter that he wanted her to stop cutting her hair that she really clued in that maybe it was not a good thing. We watched part of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (not realizing it was 65 minutes long!!) and then put the kids to bed after reading Twas the Night Before Christmas.....much to be done by Santa!!