Christmas Eve

Nothing says "Christmas Eve" like a 5am workout, right?

And we even got a couple of extra workouts to do on our own over the weekend when the gym is closed.

 

When I got home, the kitchen was crazy.  My mom was in full-on cooking mode -- in her nightgown because she doesn't like aprons.  The mini crisis was that the mixer was broken.

So off to Wal-Mart I went for a new mixer.  

We whipped up some cookies - several kinds.  I'm pretty awful in the kitchen, so all I got do was put the three red hots on each cookie.

And then I realized I was in charge of the Santa veggie tray ... and had no veggies.  

Back to Wal-Mart for the second time before noon.

Back at the house, I cut the vegetables (I really did!  And didn't even cut my finger!) ... and then burnt the cherry pie for my brother.

And then I burnt the white chocolate I was trying to melt so it got too hard to dip the pretzels in.  And the "red" turned out more hot pink.

After that, mom just had me wash dishes and keep my hands off the food.

How awesome are these!? ;)

Since I'm the only single one with no kids in my family, I got the duty to go to church an hour early and save an entire row for us.  (If you've ever been to a Catholic church on Easter or Christmas, you know why this is necessary.)

So I pulled up to a church - one we've never been to - right at 3, and the parking lot was basically empty.  I finally went in around 3:20, and it was still pretty empty!

I took pictures to kill the time...and text my family giving them a hard time.

OH, and I got a text that Hunter had just thrown up.  So now we were down 3 people and didn't need a whole row.  Awesome. ;)

The church really filled up about 3:45.  It was like everyone showed up at once.  I did my best to keep the row to myself, and even had to kick people out twice.  

So when Jason, Kelli, Hadley, Hudson, and my mom showed up, it was church selfies.  (My mom was about to strangle me for having my phone out in church, but what did she expect when I was stuck there for an hour by myself?)

 

Quote of the day:  Hudson, during church, looked at his moms earrings and said, "Your earrings look like pickles.  I like your pickles momma."  HA!  That kid is hilarious sometimes. 

We all went over to Jason and Kelli's house after church, and the kids helped us unload the presents from my car.  

So many presents we needed TWO trees!

Oh and while we were at church, Hunter had a nap and a miraculous recovery...so they weren't going to miss the Keeler Christmas after all!  (We all think he was just faking it to get out of church.) ;)

Two things are funny about this picture:  1.  Jason was singing he was so happy I got him a bottle of Crown Royal.  2.  Hudson is wearing a play wedding dress because he wanted to be able to twirl a skirt around like Hadley was. 

The veggie tray!  A little pinterest fail entertainment:

My Santa's face is just a little...square.  And his mouth is smirking at me.  But whatever.  It totally looks like Santa, right? 

Before dinner, I made everyone pose for a GoPro family shot.  It's aways such a fight to get everyone to agree to sitting down and smiling.  But any time we get everyone looking and kind of smiling at once is a huge success!

"Gram" and her three babies.  These kiddos are her life!

Hudson is very in to taking pictures, and he loves playing with the GoPro.  He's totally got it down. ;)

We finally sat down for dinner, and we all ate way too much.  The kids went straight up to play in Hadley's room while the adults got the present ready.

 

Kelli's real tree was just gorgeous!

We always try to keep it organized and even with present opening, but eventually it just turns in to a free for all.

At some point in all the madness, Hadley jumped on Jason's shoulder when he was laying on the ground.  None of us thought much of it until Jason was completely silent, not moving his arm, and kicking his feet in pain.  

Guess it was a little worse than we thought. 

He laid there like that for probably 5 minutes.  Kicking his feet and groaning.  He couldn't move his arm!  I was just sure it was out of place, but it didn't look like it was.  He eventually made it up and took his shirt off so we could get a look.  We still don't know what happened, but must have been a muscle or tendon something or another.  

The last present of the night was for my mom.  A big F A M I L Y frame for her new house from all of us.

 

We originally got it for her to put up on the mantle above the fireplace, but she's since decided to mount a big tv on the wall there...so we'll have to find a new spot for that!

At some point today, I started feeling sick.  Actually, I hadn't felt great since the weekend in New York.  I can't decide if it's a bug or if it's just my body hating me for eating like crap for the past 5 days.  Either way, I was kind of a bum all night, laying around on the couch.

Hopefully tomorrow -- Christmas Day -- is better!