Christmas Eve

We thought we’d try something new and host Christmas Eve for Jeff’s family this year and spend Christmas Day with Jen’s family. It was really nice because we got to spend a lot of time with both families instead of rushing around between houses. We’re not sure when we’ll get to do it again, but it was a wonderful holiday. We were really nervous about Christmas Eve dinner though. Aside from committing to prime rib, which we’ve never prepared before, we had an eventful few days leading up to Christmas Eve that led to being real short of time on preparations.

(Pretend there is a picture of a prime rib here.)

To begin with, on December 21st we spent the afternoon in the ER after discovering that Tyler has taken a liking to glass Christmas ornaments. Lucky for him (and us) he chewed up the little he did swallow into tiny pieces because it didn’t show up on the xray. He was looking very guilty after he did it and did not enjoy the ER at all. In fact, it took two grown men to hold him steady on the xray table. He hasn’t gotten too close to the tree since then, but we did take all the glass ornaments down. We thought we had them up high enough but apparently his reach is longer than what we thought…

(Pretend there is a picture of Tyler in his little hospital gown.)

Shortly after returning from the ER, Jen became very ill. It got bad enough that we were preparing to go to Labor and Delivery but luckily the worst symptoms started to ease up shortly after that decision was made. She ended up taking off work Monday and Tuesday. Jeff stayed home to take care of her Monday, but by Tuesday afternoon he was sick too. We both felt better by Christmas Eve, but not 100% until the weekend. Thankfully, Tyler never got it.

(Be glad there isn't a picture of anything here)

Christmas Eve dinner turned out wonderful (except for the biscuits which Jen swears were marked as “dinner rolls” on package – that was a little weird to serve with prime rib). Plus the company was great. Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder, the Carrolls, and Murphy and Jessi were all there. We got to see Ethan’s response to opening Christmas presents (we think he likes wrapping paper) and Tyler ’s response (we know he likes blocks and trucks). Thank you all for the wonderful presents and for sharing Christmas Eve with us!