'twas the night before christmas

christmas eve was a busy day, kicked off with a grueling workout at orangetheory with the old lady.  we made some stops after class, picking up groceries and gift wrap and a few other last minute items before heading home and hunkering down to get ready for the holiday.  while we were gone, the hub headed to the local butcher's shop to pick up the prime rib roast we'd ordered for our traditional christmas eve dinner.  and since it was just the five of us, it wasn't a huge piece of meat that required hours and hours in the oven.  this gave me time to keep rolling on wrapping presents and helping the girls make snacks and hors d'oeuvres for everyone to munch on throughout the day.

at around 3:30, i pulled up the trusty lawry's website (even though i pretty much have the prime rib process memorized by now), unearthed the roasting pan and rack and got that meat all prepped for the oven.

meanwhile, the girls put together a nice little charcuterie board.  we love our meat and cheese around here.

the old lady's special friend had put in a request for something he remembered fondly from his childhood - peanut butter balls.  after looking up a recipe online, the old lady got going on putting it together.  she mixed up the peanut butter and rice krispies, formed it into bite size balls and melted some milk chocolate chips for dipping.

meanwhile, it took about three hours for the prime rib to reach the correct temperature.  it looked and smelled pretty darn good when i pulled it out of the oven at last.

stevie the dog has finally warmed up to all of us, including the hub.  and vice versa, whether he wants to admit it or not.  heh.

as we were finishing up dinner, the hub remembered that we still had the wishbone from our thanksgiving turkey and handed it to the girls to battle it out.  i think you can tell pretty easily from this picture who won that one.

i didn't get a picture because we were all cracking up over it, but we finally remembered to have them play the "find the pickle" game.  the hub had actually remembered to get our pickle-shaped ornament out and hide it somewhere in the tree, and while i didn't have a prize ready he dangled a $20 and said that it would go to the first person to find the pickle.  when they didn't find it right away i decided to get in on it, but as soon as i started looking the old lady triumphantly pulled it out from its hiding place and happily accepted her prize.  it was all really funny, but maybe you had to be there.

the bean had vowed to go to bed at a decent time to give santa plenty of time to arrive - with no fireplaces left in the house she had been a little concerned about how he was going to get in the house.  we all assured her that he'd find his way in to leave the presents, and after leaving him a plate of snacks she headed off to her room to get some sleep.

after getting everything cleaned up from dinner, i finally finished wrapping the rest of the presents.  the pile of gifts under the tree was a little crazy, as it always is.

and once everyone had their matching pajamas on - even the two dogs! - the stockings were stuffed, lights were turned out and the rest of us fell into bed.

and i was so proud of myself for making it into bed well before 2am this year!  having the old lady help wrap presents a couple of weeks ahead of time was a huge help, so hopefully we'll remember to do it this way from now on.  makes going to bed on christmas eve a lot easier.