Today, Christmas Eve, the kids were home and Greg and I both had the day off work.  Last night was rough, as Kyle got up at midnight and wouldn't settle until around 1:45. We think it was teething and possibly a sore throat. After the full gamut of solutions (advil, diaper change, water, teething ring, walking) and several intervals, he finally fell asleep, only to wake again at 5a. He got more advil, water, another teething ring, and a little formula and still didn't fall asleep until 5:30-ish, only to get Greg up at 6am. This is no longer his usual pattern -- for the last week or two he has been sleeping 7:30 - 5:45ish almost every night.

Today we picked up our honey baked ham after breakfast, and mailed gifts to Alan and both sets of grandparents. We'll get Matthew's in the mail next week so it arrives after he gets back home. Then I fed Kyle while Greg and Eric "tracked" Santa and then wrapped gifts. Before lunch we gave Eric some time outside, playing in the snow (see Snowman pics). We only have maybe 1/2" of snow left, but he made the most of it with the sand toys we have reclaimed from his sandbox for snow-play.

After lunch, the kids went down for naps (Kyle reluctantly) and Greg and I wrapped the rest of the gifts. Kyle only slept for about 30mins, and so roamed around our feet for a couple hours while Eric slept and we tried to have some relaxation time. After Eric got up, we let them each open one gift. Eric chose a flat one which turned out to be a writing tablet -- a dry-erase spiral-bound tablet with pages to practice his letters and numbers. It's a little advanced for him, and he doesn't understand "pen etiquette" but he and Greg played with it for a little while and he managed to write "10" all by himself. I chose a numbers puzzle for Kyle to open -- Eric liked playing with the puzzle and Kyle liked the red bow from the present.

Dinner was leftovers. Eric ate most of his and Kyle devoured his (black olives, feta, pasta from ravioli, whole wheat bread, and rice and beans), even getting a few more olives from Mommy and some more rice and beans from Daddy. I then gave him some pureed peaches with yogurt and cereal, and some banana nut cheerios.  He finished the evening with 6oz of formula from Daddy while I took Eric to the Christmas Eve service at church (Greg bowed out as too exhausted).

On the way home Eric and I checked out some of the Christmas lights/displays on our route.  When we got home we had our last Advent, then vitamin, zyrtec, brush teeth, and bed.  Tomorrow will be a big day.