Christmas 2012: Christmas Eve

Just 24 hours later, Christmas Eve is a blur.  I know Mama and I spent most of the morning prepping the house, the gifts, and the food, while the kids did some wrapping and last-minute card-writing.  Gommie and Pop showed up mid-morning, after their own wrapping marathon, and then there was a little Christmas gift:  Pop helped Bud ride his bicycle!!!  Yep, after practicing and being discouraged, Bud figured it all out and rode back and forth on the cul-de-sac, while Mama, Gommie and I hid inside to give them privacy but meanwhile stared out through the windows to watch the progress.  Yay!!!!

We had pizza for lunch, after picking up our special deli platter for Christmas Eve, and then Goo arrived!  The kids were ecstatic and swamped him, much to the relief of the other four adults.  They immediately decorated gingerbread houses, taking lots of time to put the finishing touches on their houses.  

We had muffalettas and shrimp remoulade for Christmas Eve, plus the deli platter.  We opened the Christmas Eve traditional gifts of new books and pajamas and then headed to church services.  The service was predominantly a carol-sing, which sounded wonderful with a couple hundred congregants, the choir, the pianist, and the member orchestra!  I like singing with a big group--I'm not self-conscious about my own singing and I sound good!  There was also a short pageant and a homily, followed by treats in the social hall.

And then on the way home it started to snow!!  Light at first, like flurries, but then definitely real snow.  Merry Christmas, Pop!  You got the one thing on your list.  We stayed outside quite awhile enjoying the snow, with the kids trying to eat it and the rest of us marveling that it would be a real white Christmas.   After  sprinkling some (expensive, organic Bob's Red Mill oatmeal) "reindeer food" with green sugar on the ground, we got the kids into bed in their new red-striped reindeer (Sis) and black-and-white polar bear pajamas.  They actually fell asleep really, really fast, especially considering that earlier in the week they'd laughed at the idea that Christmas would come sooner if you feel asleep.  Apparently, they changed their minds and told Mama that maybe if they pretended to be asleep that they might actually fall asleep.  It worked.

Of course, we didn't get to go to sleep.  Goo, Mama, and I had a good time staying up chatting and went to bed early on Christmas morning, much later than we should have with little kids desperately excited about waking up to Christmas!