christmas eve

christmas eve was a lot of me and jack time. i loved every second of it!

we snuggled up in the morning to some good books.

he walked around holding the gift brady gave him, ready to open it. he was so excited to see it since he wouldn't see brady for a week or so.

every year we try to visit fashion island during the holidays to see the christmas tree.

for lunch we went with my family to newport beach's fashion island for some good food at the daily grille. of course jack performed for us the irish jig!

after we treated ourselves with some gluten-free sprinkles cupcakes!

red-velvet is their only flavor we can eat, but it was the best cupcake i've had in a long time.

the drive back was gorgeous. PCH is always beautiful but especially around the holidays.

we played scrabble and nerts with jack. i love how he enjoys spelling out words and the excitement i see on his face when he gets the spelling right.

we baked some sugar cookies and prepared the carrots for the reindeer. he asked to put some of his toys out for santa to give to the children who need toys. he had me label what each plate was for. i told him santa is probably tired of all these cookies, shouldn't we put something more healthy? he said, "no mom, santa only eats cookies and lots of them."

he opened up brady's gift which was cat and the hat book as well as a little funny disposable camera. he was the happiest little guy. so far he has taken 15 pictures in two days with that camera and has read that book 6 times.

he was so excited to go to sleep that he closed his eyes tightly after we read books and covered his little body with his covers. i watched "it's a wonderful life" with my family until each of them slowly tapped out to fall asleep.

it was a great christmas eve.