Christmas Eve... Eve

Yesterday we went to Kevin's parents' house to exchange gifts and have dinner together.

We kicked off the gift exchange by giving Olivia and Hannah the Super Mario themed plushies we came across at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago: Hannah got a mushroom to help her grow, Liv got a piranha plant to help ward Hannah off when she gets a little bigger, and we wrapped them in a pair of "item block" question mark bags that I just barely finished designing in the nick of time before bed last night :)

Kelly got a kick out of the presentation. And Kevin was totally caught off guard when I surprised him by pulling out the gigantic piranha plant we had seen without a price tag (which he assumed was prohibitively expensive, and therefore had no idea I had bought it since I did so while having him distract Riley so I could purchase a few gifts for her)!

Then it was Riley's turn to open something. We gave her a lavender scented cat plushie that can be microwaved and used as a heating pad. And I had found a great card, so I did some custom wrapping and made a few "touch ups" with a brown Sharpie marker:

Kevin knows I had a long standing tradition with the kids where I would let them pick out a new Christmas ornament each year to remember that year by.

And he also knows I love frogs, so he got me a personalized ornament to commemorate our first Christmas together as a family :)

Riley's a die hard Garfield fan, so Kevin's parents got her a Garfield plushie, and Kelly and Steve got her the most vibrant blanket to match (along with a giant assortment of candy, which I didn't get a picture of).

Kevin and I got his parents a digital photo frame, which Kevin preloaded with a bunch of pictures of the kids and grandkids.

We gave Kelly and Steve a Door Dash gift card that we know will come in handy in a pinch one night.

And Kevin got his mom and Liv a little something extra:

Kevin's parents were also very generous to the "grandcats":

And then, it seemed that there were no more presents to be opened...

But, there might have been one more for Riley from me and Kevin that we had asked Catherine and Ron to stash in between their front doors!

After listening to Riley lamenting for months that she desperately wanted a guitar but knew she wasn't getting one because "they're so expensive," we finally got to give her the guitar Kevin had found even before Halloween had rolled around :D

Catherine had pre-made one of her delicious lasagnas for dinner that just needed to be popped in the oven. So that gave us time to visit (and mostly fawn over Hannah):

But of course everyone made sure Liv received her fair share of attention as well. And she was thrilled at the chance to hang out with Riley... (It's not every day you meet a rock star in person!):

When we got home later, Riley wasted no time detonating the hot chocolate bomb Kelly and Steve gave her in the basket of candy:

And all in all, she sure made out like a bandit!