Cookies and Christmas Eve

Before Christmas, my Mom and I spent days making lots of different cookies to give away. A tradition that we love, but glad it's only once a year! Here are a few of our cute gingerbread men.

Owen was great at helping to eat all the cookies! And he had fun decorating them too. These were not the one's we gave away as gifts.... ; )

Adam had to work on Christmas Eve unfortunately. I was so busy preparing for the next day that I gave up on making a nice Christmas Eve dinner, so my Mom and the kids and I surprised Adam at work and showed up for dinner at Endless Summer. Not what I had in mind for such a holiday, but we actually had a lot of fun. The restaurant was almost empty by 7:00 and Adam had just ended his shift, so we could all eat together as a family. We shared a great bottle of wine, some seared ahi and grilled salmon. Yum.

While waiting for our meals, Owen decided to get a pad of paper and a crayon and start asking those that were still in the restaurant what they wanted to order. He took orders from complete strangers. He would go up to a table and say "Whaddya want?"....until he was corrected and told to say "What would like Mam or Sir?"
In fact he was so good at waiting tables, he got his first real tip from a stranger. $1 He was SO proud!"Can you believe this lady?!"After hours, Owen was allowed behind the bar and helped with the dishes. I think we should get him a work permit soon!Finally it was time to go home and wait for Santa to arrive. We let him swing between us the whole way back to the car.Love this picture with his feet in the air!