Christmas Eve at Grandpa Kovar's

This year we flew down to California for the holidays... Christmas, New Years and Ephram's birthday.  It was a fun, packed trip and we had a great time.  Last year I was nine months pregnant for the holidays, so traveling wasn't an option.  It was nice to see all of our families again!  (It would have been perfect if the Bowers' and Kartchners could have joined us too!)

The first holiday celebration took place on Christmas Eve.  Andy's family always did the bulk of celebrating on Christmas Eve, so when possible we spend Christmas Eve with his family.

Kristina, Andy's sister, sent us the cutest little santa suit for Ephram.  We put him in it and had fun watching him toddle around.  He just started to take his first real steps a few days before Christmas, so the timing was excellent!

Charlie was borrowing Andy's santa hat for most of the evening... we also got a picture of both of the boys in their gear.  The picture isn't the best... most of the ones I took were blurry because they were moving so quickly.  (I'm sure it also had something to do with the candies and cookies that were there in rich supply!)

Andy and I prepared one of our favorite dinners for the occasion - tacos.  Everyone ate a lot... Ephram too!  We were full afterward and spent some time just enjoying each other's company.  I also took a picture of all of the Kovar men together... three generations.  We were only missing the two little Bowers that are currently living in Belgium!

As the night wore on we prepared to open presents by listening to the story of Jesus' birth from Luke 2.  Kris did a great job reading it for all of us.

And then it was present time!   Both boys were super excited about their gifts from Uncle Kris - Lincoln Logs for Charlie and a ball popper for Ephram.  This was also the first present opening experience for Ephram... it took some prodding to get him to rip the paper.

I guess we didn't have enough presents for Charlie to open on his own, because he helped everyone open their presents!

Once all of the presents were open we spent some time playing.  Charlie with his Lincoln Logs, and Ephram with a little snail toy from Grandpa Kovar.

And then it was time to get into pajamas and go to sleep so that Santa could make his deliveries.  We gave the boys matching pj's as their Christmas Eve gifts from us.  They were pretty cute!

And then we took off for my parent's house to put Charlie to bed.  We told him that Santa comes to the place that you are sleeping.  He was beyond excited to find out what Santa would bring...