Christmas Eve Night---Spent in a Tent

The start of this story goes way back to when I was pregnant with Bridger.  Jay and I bought a tent from Cabella's.  We thought it was the neatest thing ever.  We didn't have the money to buy a trailer, so we bought this huge tent with a fireplace in it...Yes...a fireplace.  We have many fun memories involving this tent.  We thought it would be fun to share some of these memories with our kids, so we brought back our very first tradition that we started as a newly married couple--sleep outside in the tent on Christmas Eve.

The first time Jay and I slept out on Christmas Eve the temperature dropped to negative 14.  We stayed plenty warm, but Jay had to get up every couple of hours and put more wood on the fire.  So we figured that the kids would all stay warm and we decided to attempt it again as a family of 6. 

We set up the tent (with many people driving by really slowly...I can only imagine what they were thinking!)  and then headed to Jay's parents to get some wood for the fire.  

We got back around 7 (after a fun Christmas Eve party with Jay's family) and started the fire up to warm up the tent...it didn't take long until the tent was nice and toasty warm. 

We got the beds all made and got the kids dressed in their new christmas pjs and headed out to our little adventure.  (Another tradition we have is every year I sew us all matching pajamas, the kids are are close to the same size, so I started putting their initial on their shirts...it doesn't spell anything)

We put a TV out there and bought the kids the Hannah Montana movie and we watched that and ate popcorn.  By the time the movie was over the bed Jay and I was on had slowly deflated and we were laying on ground.  We pumped it up again, but it didn't last long.  Jay switched over to the kids bed and we put Macie in bed with me.   We stayed plenty warm, but since the bed was flat me and Macie were pretty much laying on the tent floor and it was cold from the ground below us, so our backs were super cold, but our fronts were nice and warm.  We made it until about 5am and then we packed up the kids and headed inside to our comfy beds. 

We just told the kids that we didn't know if Santa had come yet so hurry and get in bed so he will still come (they actually walked past everything Santa had brought, but we wanted a little bit more sleep before we dug into all of that!).  They did great and headed right to bed so Santa could still come, and we woke up at 7. 

It was a fun night...and fairly warm for the most part.  In fact it was so warm, that the side of the TV that was closest to the fire actually melted. 

It was a lot of work, but I am sure the kids will always remember it.  Macie cried for a long time the next night because she wanted to sleep in the tent again.  I am sure this is something we will continue doing for many years.