Christmas Eve

Yep, this post is all about Christmas Eve. I had so many pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that I had to split them up. Totally worth the work! We had such a wonderful Christmas with both our families. This year was our year to spend with the Miller side so, as was mentioned before in an older post, we had a party with my family before Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with his family. The first thing we did was meet the newest member of the family:

This sweet little puppy, Zoe, was a gift from Tyson's dad to Tyson's mom and she is so fun. Julie was so excited to get her! Tyson and I were so focused on having the video camera out when the puppy came that we spaced getting out the camera. So we have zero pictures of Julie and Zoe together. So not like me to do that.

Lillie & Zoe


Dustin and Tyson trying to get a good picture of Zoe to send to Tacie.
Cooper was trying to help as well.
Dustin and Erika and their kids were able to come from Vancouver for Christmas. We had a blast with them throughout the week! Love those guys. Some of our besties for sure.


Easton & Zoe


Brycen wore his Santa suit to the party. We never have to bring toys to Grandma and Grandpa Miller's house because they always have plenty of entertainment for him. In this case Brycen had a play phone, a plastic cup, and a doll. :)

We had a small program throughout the evening. We started with a piano solo of "Jingle Bells" by Easton. He did a great job!

Angie, Steve, Jack, and Dustin

Milan & Julie

Lillie also performed. She sang "Away in a Manger" and it was so cute. You can tell most of us have been primary choristers because of how we were mouthing the words and helping her! Too fun.

Angie played "The Hallelujah Chorus" on the piano. Tough stuff!

Dustin and Tyson the camera men

Lillie and Kate reading books during all the fun

Cooper told the Christmas story about the orange

All those kids just love little Zoe!

Erika and Dustin singing "O Hush Thee, My Baby"

Tyson and I did a piano duet of "Sleigh Ride" and didn't really care for a picture or to be recorded. Let's just say it wasn't that great. We had been practicing it for a while for another party. But after playing on Christmas Eve we decided it wasn't necessary to play at the other party ha ha.

Cute little cousins, Brycen and Jack

Tyson kept that video camera going, including a little close-up of Brycen playing on the floor.

Cooper & Zoe

After the program we read the story "Davey and the First Christmas". This story has been a family tradition in Julie's family since she was a little girl. Everyone has it memorized. It was fun to be there for it for the first time. Grandma Clawson led us.

Brycen playing with Gramps

After the story was over we had a special visitor! The kids were so excited to see Santa.

Santa & Cooper

Santa & Easton

Santa & Brycen

Brycen did just fine with Santa! We were so glad that he showed up at the house. We hadn't gone to see him at the mall so it was perfect. And a very fun moment for our little family! Santa told Brycen that he was a really good body and very well-behaved.

Brycen got a candy cane full of Reese's from Santa.

His dad was very happy!

Jack didn't do so well with Santa. :)

And Kate wanted nothing to do with him! It was so funny, we couldn't help but laugh. Julie ended up sitting next to Santa with Kate on her lap. Kate asked for a Barbie from Santa.

We snapped another picture with Brycen and Santa because I was at such a bad angle before. I love how they match!

Our family picture with Santa

Steve and Angie with their kids Kate, Cooper, and Easton

Dustin and Erika with their kids Lillie and Jack

After Santa left we broke out the food.

I made Oreo truffles and gooey Chex treat for a couple of sweets at the party. I also made a bowtie grape salad. (You can fine the recipes for all three of these dishes on my recipe blog!)

Tyson and Julie getting food ready

We had pulled pork sandwiches and they were so good!

After dinner we put Brycen in his jammies and got a picture of him with Zoe. Brycen loves Zoe!