Christmas Eve

I am seriously combating the post-Christmas blues today. I do not want to go back to school and back to the responsibilities that I've been pretending don't exist. So today I posting about my Christmas Eve to help combat the blues (PS my Christmas tree is still up too, I'm going to ease myself out!)

To recap, we woke up early Christmas Eve morning at the beach. We had a quick breakfast and then packed up, drove and hour home, unpacked, re-packed, went grocery shopping and then drove another hour to my parents. It was absolutely pouring down rain as we packed up and drove off, which made loading everything in the car quite fun.

This is what greeted us at my parents'. Thanks mom :)

We visited and ate yummy treats and watched my adorable nephew open his first Christmas presents. He was very interested in the bow and wrapping paper.

Santa even stopped by on his trip around the globe!

Later, we settled down for an epic game of RISK. This was the first year the the girls were invited to play. My youngest brother was out for blood, because last year my husband won. Joel is really good at strategy games--he always wins!! So we were all in an alliance against him.

After, like, 4 HOURS... Joel was the 1st one out and it came down to me and my youngest brother left. Beginner's luck? We decided to call it a draw because we were tired of playing haha.

We said goodbye to my older brother & his family and then my younger brother and I decorated Christmas cookies and recreated the picture on the left. I think it was taken about 6 or 7 years ago. Our snowmen didn't turn out quite as well this time. Let's just say we were tired and got creative haha.

 I love my mom's Christmas decorations. My mom and I were the last ones up. We wrapped presents and talked, and cleaned and organized things until about 4 AM. My mom and I have always stayed up late on Christmas Eve to wrap presents together.

Ah, Christmas time is magical. I hope this post made your first Monday post Christmas break (for those of you who didn't have to keep a regular work schedule!) more enjoyable!
Happy Monday!