We go to the early (late afternoon/early evening) service at church on Christmas Eve (but have a big snack beforehand). Afterwards, we make homemade pizza, bake Jesus' birthday cake, change into new Christmas jammies, and watch a Christmas movie before bed. I might let the kids exchange their presents to one another before bed.
This year, we'll be going to my mom's church for Christmas Eve service. Since it's right at 5 pm, I'm not sure what we'll do abt dinner --- eat ahead of time or eat with my family afterwards. Some time that day we will have our pizza! Usually, my mom has everyone over to the house post-service for snacks before going home. Since I'm the only one with kids that still believe in Santa, we'll probably not stay all that long before going home.
I stay up after the kids are in bed to wrap presents and listen to music and put them under the tree. It's usually one of my favorite nights of the whole year, and I usually become super sentimental and mushy and emotional reflecting back on the year behind us. The church I go to now has an 11 pm service so I might sneak over and attend that depending on how far along I am in present wrapping!
Ellie wakes up around 7 or 7:30 no matter what day it is, even Christmas Day, so we usually open gifts then. I get up earlier than that to make breakfast casserole and frost Jesus' birthday cake. She gets to do her stocking while DH rolls out of bed, gets coffee on, and attempts to be human. We eat after presents are opened. Santa brings one big unwrapped gift and fills the stockings, and the rest are from us.
In the past, we've had DH's parents over to watch the kids open presents but now they live a couple hours away. I'm not sure that my parents will come over since they're hosting dinner at noon and my sister & BIL & nephew are used to spending Christmas morning on their own. We'll see.
In any case, we'll be at my parents' at 10 am to open presents & have dinner. I've volunteered to make a trifle & squash casserole so I guess I'll have to do that either late Christmas Eve night or at the same time I'm making breakfast casserole in the morning! I've never lived close enough to bring a dish before so we'll see how good I am at time and kid management.
Everyone usually leaves my parents' house by 3 or 4 pm, after dessert, and goes home to crash from a long day! We have Christmas with my ILs the next day so I'll need to go home and pack us all up so we can leave bright & early the next morning.
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