holiday eves

Every holiday our little family gets so excited. For as long as Mike and I can remember the eve of all holidays have been by far our favorite part of any holiday. Growing up Christmas Eve was and is my favorite day of the entire year. There's something about the anticipation of the actual day that makes Eves so much fun. This year we’re trying to figure out when we want to travel to visit family and both of us agree we most definitely cannot miss Christmas Eve with our little family. We love the anticipation of the holiday, but when the actual day comes we get a little sad knowing it’s all over.

When I was little I was in charge or wrapping all the gifts and I created my very own wrapping station in my parents bedroom. I had the best setup too. A table pushed up I'm front of their door that allowed me to close the door so no one could see all the presents. A variety of paper, ribbon, bows and gift tags to choose from and of course I charged $0.25-0.50 per gift. {Follow my All Wrapped Up Pinterest board for gift wrapping ideas }I still get an excited feeling in my stomach and goosebumps thinking about my shop. I still set up my own little wrapping station every year, but it's just not as cool as it was then.  I can't wait to help Kensi set up her own shop someday.

I adore Mike so much because he made my favorite day of the year that much better in 2006 when he proposed. Not only did he know I would love to get engaged on Christmas Eve because of all it's magical festivness, but it was also the night my parents became engaged many many years ago.

We really love spending Christmas Eve relaxing listening to beautiful Christmas music and making a stop at Starbucks to enjoy our favorite peppermint white mochas. It's our time to slow down when the rest of the world is rushing through the stores doing last minute shopping. We usually make Italian wedding soup for dinner and our own Christmas fettuccine. We stole my sister & bro-in-law's Christmas Eve tradition she does with her kids. After Christmas Eve service the kids find a surprise from Santa’s Elves....a brand new pair of jams to sleep in that night. We did this with Kensi last year and even though she was only 6 months old, she loved her penguin jams. Such a fun little tradition especially when Kensi gets a little older and becomes excited to see what was left for her!

This Christmas will be very special for us since this will be the first Christmas we are celebrating on our own. We decided to stay home and do our own thing this year since we are welcoming Baby #2 in December and we wanted to be able to start our traditions in our own home. It stinks we have to choose between us and our family at this point because we live so far away, but the great news is my sister and her fan and my parents are all traveling to be with us a couple days later!