'Twas the night before Christmas

Well, it's officially here, Christmas Eve.  It's come SO quickly.  What a wonderful time of year for our family.  As I saw patients today, they asked if I had any children.  I, of course, offered that I have 2, a 5 year old boy and a 2 year old girl.  All of them immediately replied that I was in for a special treat.  I agree.  Tomorrow morning is going to be SPLENDID!

I can't even remember what's happened since my last blog post...finished shopping-even ordered something Tuesday evening and received it Thursday (amazing!) for a "little" extra money! :)  I wrapped tons of gifts and placed them under the tree.  Since I had to work today, we spent yesterday as a family, just the four of us.  We went to breakfast and returned home to spend a little extra time together.  We had a great time making Santa cookies.  We cut out the cookies with our many Christmas cookie cutters and decorated them with sprinkles and candies.  Eliza ate enough raw dough to equal 2 cookies.  We couldn't keep her out of it!  She also enjoyed using the pink sprinkles for the wise men, reindeer, stars and Christmas bells--"because pink's my favorite." Jackson couldn't wait for the cookies to come out of the oven and cool, so he could have a cooked cookie.  He decided he wasn't messing with that raw stuff.

Eliza making all the cookies pink

They're so proud of their Christmas cookies (notice all the pink sprinkles)

Last night, Charlie and I enjoyed watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  It's become a tradition of ours to sit down and watch it sometime during the Christmas season.  It gets funnier and funnier each year we see it.  Charlie's favorite is the squirrel part...if you've ever seen it, you know what I'm talking about.  I'm laughing just thinking about it.

This afternoon we had the family Christmas Eve service at church.  During this service, the children participate in the Christmas pageant, The First Christmas Ever.  It's super cute!  The children have one practice, the Sunday before the performance and are given their part in the play based on their age.  The play is "acted" out by the Christmas hymns the congregation sings.  It's wonderful to see so many children dresses as sheep, shepherds, angels, wise people, Mary and Joseph.  This year, Jackson graduated to a shepherd, as he is now in Kindergarten.  Eliza isn't quite old enough to participate, BUT next year, we'll have to pleasure of seeing her as a sheep.  That will be interesting!!

Jackson is a shepherd

After the church service, we all came back to our house (my parents and Charlie's parents included) and had dinner.  Such a nice time talking about Santa coming and visiting with each other until we get the children to bed.

Right before bed, we placed Santa's cookies and the reindeer's carrot chips on our Christmas plate.  Jackson, of course, noted that there were only 2 carrot chips on the plate, so he had to get six more so all 8 reindeer would have a carrot chip! He never stops thinking, especially of others--even at 5!  I'm so glad the reindeer will now have 8 carrots to consume! ;)

As I've moved the Barbie (sitting on the couch watching TV--naked, of course!) to sit on the sofa, I quickly type a blog entry. A Christmas movie plays in the background, we wait for the house to get quiet.  Eliza told me after I read her a story, sang her two songs and went to the potty 2 more times, that we "better get in bed cuz Santa comes tonight."  I think Charlie and I are more excited to see our children's eyes tomorrow morning when they wake up to see what Santa has left.  I cherish these moments, as I know they are VERY short-lived.

Christmas 2010: Our family on Christmas Eve

 Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!!