First thing in the morning the kids reminded me that we didn't make Christmas cookies yet; as if I wasn't up 1/2 the night worrying about the things we didn't get done.
So we spent most of the day making 4 different kinds of cookies.
In between all the batches I kept running upstairs to wrap presents, trying to get the house clean and do laundry from my trip.
This didn't work out as well as I hoped. The kids are used to us spending Christmas eve day "hanging out" and enjoying each other and I had too much to do. December is Kirk's busiest month at work so we don't see him much until Christmas Eve but this year Riley had hockey practice so they weren't home most of the day and Kirk wasn't able to help keep the kids busy so I could get everything else done.
Eventually, we got all the cookies made (but not before Hayley & Connor were fully coated in flour:) and most of the presents wrapped and when Kirk & Riley got home around 6pm we finally gave into to the all day request of "can we open presents now?"
When we first got married we always spent Christmas Eve at Kirk's Dad's with his family and then Christmas Day at our house with my family but since we moved to North Carolina in 1999 it has been tradition to open gifts from our out of town Lorkowski family on Christmas Eve.
Over the years things have changed... we moved back to New York but much of our family has moved away so we have kept with this tradition.
I always put these presents from Grandma & Grandpa Lorkowski, Grandma Kathleen and Aunt Krystin & Uncle Darrin under the tree early for me to enjoy how decorative it is and the kids are always anxious to find out what is inside and ask me constantly if I know; Of course I do not ;)
This is also the time we let them exchange the gifts they bought for each other since we don't want that to get lost in the commotion of Christmas Morning excitement. It is so nice to sit back and watch what they buy each other each year. So much thought goes into it and they really enjoy shopping and wrapping themselves.
After opening presents and playing we put on our new Christmas PJ's (even Daddy got a new pair) and check out the whereabouts of Santa. When we see him in Canada we know it's time to get to bed and asleep quickly!
