Setzler Family Christmas Eve

Finally, the Christmas posts are coming!  Christmas actually felt long & relaxing this year.  Once Thursday morning came, we packed up the car (including all of the almost identically wrapped presents for all of our family, as shown below) & traveled to Mobile where we would stay through Christmas Eve, all of Christmas Day, & not have to travel anywhere else the entire Holiday!

Christmas Eve Day we arrived at my parents house early in order to spend the whole day there (everyone was lucky to be off work for the day, too).  We started by letting Bennett open his presents before it was his nap time.  2 of his presents were too big to wrap, so Ben would hold him & tell him to cover his eyes while someone brought the gift in the room to surprise him...

Rachel, Hollis, Ben & I all went in together to give him this castle/rockwall/fort/slide.  I think it was a hit!  It even has a steering wheel on the top & Bennett kept turning it saying "Bennett Roe's BOAT!" 

After Bennett went down for his afternoon nap, we all came together to get the finishing touches of lunch ready.  I think it was one of the BEST Holiday meals we had cooked in a while.  We enjoyed (clockwise from L) Spinach Madeline, Corn salad, Butter Beans, Beef Wellington, & Potato Casserole.  (We held off on desserts until later in the afternoon... and they were a chocolate chip pound cake & coconut sheet cake)... (a few recipes to come). 

With full Holiday bellies, we headed back into the living room for the rest of the family's present exchange.  As Natalie mentioned in her blog post (if you haven't already, you should read it here), our family goes around the room 1 by 1 and watch each other open presents.  Everyone was so sweet & giving & creative... LOOK at this amazing blanket that Natalie MADE for me (& one just like it w/ different colors for Rachel too).  I've snuggled up in it every single day since Christmas!  I still can't believe she made it herself. 

Harper even got a bone to keep him entertained:

After opening presents, it felt like back in the day when we were kids, and we all went outside in the driveway to play with our "toys."  While we watched Bennett ride around on his new tricycle (from Mimi & Doc), Ben tried out his basketball skills w/ the new ball I gave him (he asked for). 

Then it was time to head to church.  To be honest, the rest of the night is kinda blahhh for me because: I had a migraine before church, took my migraine medicine, sat at Christmas church w/ Ben's family but felt miserable, got sick on the drive back to my parents house after church, got in my PJs when we arrived there, got sick again, laid on the couch most of the rest of the night, tried to get up & be Christmas-like when my aunt came over for homemade gumbo dinner, got sick when I stood up again, laid back down & took a nap until it was time for us to head to Ben's parents house to spend the night.  We wavered between wondering if I had the stomach-virus (which both of my sisters & my brother-in-law had earlier in the week) or had a bad reaction to my migraine & taking my nausea-inducing migraine medicine soon after drinking a glass of wine.  Either way it wasn't the way I hoped to spend the rest of my Christmas Eve. 

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Our Setzler Family Christmas Eve was a wonderful success & it was a blessing to all be together, happy, healthy, & celebrating Jesus' birth!