T'was the Night Before Christmas

Yes, it's March and I am writing about Christmas... pretty embarrassing!  I am trying to catch up which means that I have to start from the beginning of where I left off... and it's been awhile- makes me so mad when I get this far behind but I am determined....This is my record after all and how can you skip Christmas?... I can't.  So here it is Our Christmas 2009.

On Christmas Eve we made cookies for Santa...

Set up, decorated and began preparations for our Christmas Eve dinner and program...

Ready for the party to begin...

Our usual Christmas Eve tradition is to wear the kids out by going sledding.  This year however, the snow was frozen SOLID and it was WAY to cold so Glen took the boys over to the church in the late afternoon to run around in the gym while I put Oliver down for his nap and made the final preparations for our meal.  My little sister Julie who lives in New York had just had her baby so my parents were out at her place to help her.  We invited my brother Steve and his family over for the evening

We ate the traditional french dip sandwiches, au gratin potatoes, green salad, corn, rolls and I tried a new recipe... rainbow jello that was such a hit at our Thaksgiving feast in Montana.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be to set all those layers.  I messed it up a little and some of the colors sort of ran together, but now I know some tricks and next time it will be easier. 

I think the boys favorite part of the dinner was pouring and drinking the sparkling cider and then toasting "cheers" over and over....

Just after dinner, Mathew my brothers oldest son started to complain that he didn't feel very good... headache etc... so he laid around while we cleaned up and decided on the plan for the rest of the evening.  We had all the kids open one gift -their Christmas Pajamas and by that time poor Mathew's headache had turned into the stomach flu.  My brother knew we were heading out to California the next day and didn't want to risk exposing us any further so we snapped a few pictures while Mathew waited in the car and then they headed home for the night.  (the rest of their family ALL had the stomach flu by the morning... bad night for them!)

We were so sad to see Steve and his family leave but we stuck to our plan and did our annual sing-a-story of Christmas nativity where we sing and tell the story of Christ's birth as we make the nativity scene.

Then we made reindeer food... some oats and some glitter to sparkle in the moonlight- lighting the way for Santa's sleigh.

We tracked Santa on the online satellite to see how much time we had before he'd be here... his next stop was New York city... the boys couldn't wait to get to bed, Santa was on his way!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

They quickly set out the cookies that they made and wrote last minute letters full of pleas and professions of "goodness".... Evan, Eli and Gabe all slept together in Gabe's room which was all lit up with Christmas lights.  I laid with them and just as they were drifting off... we heard the sound of sleigh bells overhead.  Sleepily they grinned as we talked about the hopes and plans for the next morning.  Little did they know that we had a big surprise waiting (A trip to California, including a trip to Disneyland!)

The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Christmastime danced in their heads...

During the week I had been preparing for Christmas morning the best that I could... it's sort of hard to pack secretly.  :)  We did have everything wrapped which was a first and of course that ended up being a huge help.  We knew that we had a big day of driving ahead for us and so we worked quickly... There was excitement in the air as we finished the last minute details with the boys sleeping soundly... I love the feelings of Christmas, the magic doesn't go away with youth, in lots of ways it is actually more magical now.  This was a 'Christmas to remember' one of our best...

details to come soon...