christmas eve

2015

ahhhhhh! it was finally christmas eve and we were so excited! i love the holidays and the joy that comes with it!

like i said in a previous post {now that the cat’s out of the bag!}, I have been sooooooo tired from this pregnancy! writing blog posts, decorating, planning, going out, whatever it was took five times as long having a toddler and being so exhausted every day. there were days where i didn’t want to do anything and that is soooooo unlike me. i am the energizer bunny. i can plow through anything and come out winning like a champ with extra energy to spare. hahaha! throw in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy during the holidays and i was ko’d.

anyhoo, our morning started calm and quiet. hc made a delicious breakfast quiche to start our day out. we just relaxed and completed odds and ends before we headed over to my parent’s house. while the girls slept, i made christmas popcorn and packed them into mason jars for our neighbors and saved the rest to bring over to my parent’s house for our family to munch on.

[hc made a festive christmas breakfast]

[yummy christmas popcorn]

once we arrived at my parent’s house, cooking our christmas eve dinner was in full swing. we hung out with everyone, sporadically helped out with dinner, the kids played, and everyone was just having a great time together. it’s always so fun to have my brother huy around and his fiancé tashina. they are so quirky, fun, and oh so creative. i love their style and the kids love them so much!

my sisters did such a great job setting the table and the kid’s table. it’s always so pretty and festive. once dinner was ready to be served, we all sat down, my dad says a blessing, and we get to manger manger the delicious meal my sister kim cooks! after dinner is when the kids get soooo antsy because they want to open presents! i must say, though, my nephews do ask but they are so patient and understanding. we won’t open presents until we are all done with cleaning up the table, the kitchen, and the dishes are all washed, cleaned, and dried.

of course the kids always go first! r and b are tooo cute when they open up their gifts, we always get hugs and thank you’s. sooooo sweet! each present for olive, we had to get started. someone would tear off a little piece or corner and away she would go. she definitely had fun opening up her gifts! she loved the big stuffed kitty aunt thuy bought her, one of her favorites! she also looooooved b’s roller skates! they were too small for b but olive wanted to put them on and she was amazing in them! she held her balance well, she would jump and land on her feet, and every time she fell, she would say, “whoa whoa whoa!!!!”. it was too stinkin’ cute!

the best part of the evening? being able to tell our mom and dad and famille that i am pregnant! i was sooooo excited, i could hardly wait! after the kids opened up a majority of their gifts, i decided to give my parents our present from us. my dad was the one to open it up. as he did, a big smile crossed his face…seeing what the shirt said. he held up the shirt {a white toddler tee that said big sister in vietnamese} and my sister kim asked, “who gave that to dad?”. i said, “we did! i am PREGNANT!!!!!”. there were gasps and cries of joy! oh i was sooooo happy to tell everyone the news! there were tears and hugs and lots of smiles! it was so awesome to share the news and see the elation on everyone’s faces! little r asked if he could have a boy cousin! hahaha! we will see little one, we will see!

oh what a merry christmas eve it was! it felt fantastic to finally share the joyous news and just let my prego belly hang out! i was soooo tired of hiding it! after we opened up all our gifts, i sliced the buche du noel cake and served the french classic treat to everyone and we just reveled in all the goodness around us. it was quite the blessed evening and we couldn’t wait for christmas day to share the news with hc’s side of the family! hooray!