Christmas Eve

We had a festive Christmas Eve, starting out with tea at Lolly and Papa's house. Earlier in the week, Uncle and Aunt C had come over to make jiaozi (Chinese dumplings) so we had those, scones with jam, cheese and crackers, shrimp, deviled eggs, marinated Kalamata olives, chicken salad and tuna pate. What tea would be complete without, of course, Earl Gray and champagne to celebrate?! Delicious!!



J putting the finishing touches on the jiaozis.


After our tea, we headed out to get a seat for the 5:00 mass. The church is a huge, beautiful building but we still had to arrive about 45 minutes early in order to get a seat for all of us. It was a true Christmas service, all the way down to the incense and individual candles that were used.

Then it was back to Lolly and Papa's for English trifle, Christmas cookies and more bubbly. The Noodle wasn't so interested in having her picture taken so some major bribery had to happen in the form of Uncle and Auntie's cell phones. Thank goodness for technology.

Helping Papa.





Once we arrived home, we sprinkled the reindeer food outside and then set out the cookies and milk for Santa. After reading The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas Story, it was up to bed for one tired Noodle. As you can imagine, our night was just getting started....