Footy pajama's and Gingerbread Beaches

I've decided that Christmas eve is my favorite part of the the whole Chrismas season. Yes, even more than Chrismas morning with all of it's unwrapping and exclamations of delight. Christmas eve in my family is steeped in tradition. We always begin in the early evening with making gingerbread houses. My Dad is famous for getting very involved in his gingerbread house, it has to be perfect and it is usually very unique. Most of the time we are all begging him to finish so that we can eat dinner as he sits bent over his masterpiece of graham crackers and various candies. He even ruined our kitchen table one year, he got a little too excited with the mallet. Why he needed the mallet for his gingerbread house is still a mystery for the rest of us. This year for my Dad's gingerbread house he decided that he had to use every piece of candy provided. But he could only put it on the roof. He got a little creative in order to fit everything on. My house this year was also a little different, I made a beach house. I used food coloring to dye some of the frosting blue to make the ocean, crushed some pretzels for sand and then made a thatched roof and some palm trees. I even included some candy-heart-crabs, and a gum-drop-shark. Santa always judges the gingerbread houses, and this year mine won! After we clean up the mess from making gingerbread houses we have a delicious dinner. We all have Australian crackers which explode open and reveal a paper hat, joke, and small prize. Then we all wear our funny hats and share our jokes. Dinner Christmas eve is always amazing, my Mom always makes a delicious honey baked ham and cheesy potatoes. Unfortunately, Dalton and Austin complain a bit about the potatoes. I can't understand why, in my opinion you can't go wrong with cheese and pototoes. After dinner my Dad reads the Christmas story from Luke and we usually act it out, but this year we just listened, and watched Olivia with her doll as Mary and Jesus. We get to open one present on Christmas eve, and it is always pajamas. My Mom always tries to convince us that this year it it different, but it never is. Natalie, Olivia, and I all got penguin footy pajamas this year. I love them. I love being 20 and having footy pajamas. I will be the envy of all of my roommates back at school! We always end the night with singing Christmas carols, and I sing descants from my old Salt Lake Children's choir days. Then it's off to bed so that santa can come! Christmas eve is full of wonderful tradition and anticipation for the next days surprises. I am already counting down the days until next year!