Christmas Eve

Our friends, Chad and Calesta Harrison, invited a few friends over for a Victorian style Christmas Eve for the kids this year.

The Harrisons own one of the historic homes in nearby Saline, Michigan, and Calesta had dolled the place up right for a home tour this year, so she invited us over to enjoy it with a some Victorian traditions.

We started with a Christmas maze, in which the children followed ribbons with their names on them to their own little gifts under the tree.

I'm not sure the children entirely "got" it, but they had a blast, and they enjoyed the little gifts we had all supplied for all of the children. I think that they would understand a lot better next year, having tried it once and gotten the payoff -- and it sure was fun to watch!

Next we did Christmas Cones, which are essentially similar to the well-known Christmas stocking. They contain a few candies and fruits and a few small trinkets to unwrap.

Jack was absolutely croggled at the concept of "no limits" on his candy consumption from the cone. I was croggled that he chose to throw a lot of it away.

After all the gifts were unwrapped, the kids sat down to draw and the adults chatted for a bit.

And then we all went out for dinner at a local Korean restaurant. Chad is our "resident expert" on Korean food and culture, having been to Korea, and with his guidance we had am amazing meal -- Jack, even after all that candy, and with his usual reluctance to eat anything not already familiar, ate a huge meal and proclaimed it wonderful!

It was a delightful afternoon! Calesta and Chad sure know how to throw a party! (I am not a big fan of huge parties and I usually find parties of any kind just exhausting. Somehow I found this Christmas Eve both fun and relaxing.)