Christmas Eve was a wonderful day. We spent the day at home until the late afternoon. Then we went to the Christmas Eve Mass with my parents and sister. We actually got there early enough this year to have seats in the pews instead of the folding chairs in the back. It was a very nice Mass with great music. Eva sang her heart out during “Go Tell It On the Mountain.” She belted it out loud enough to have some folks turn right around to notice. After Mass we took the annual photo of the kids with the manger scene.
We then had a nice family dinner with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. Allison made her Christmas Chicken stew. We enjoyed good conversation and fun. Erik gave me a special tin of Garrett popcorn. He said it was supposed to be in a pink bucket but instead it was a Chicago Bulls one. While the pink one would have been funnier, it didn’t matter since the popcorn is what I’m excited about. It was nice of him to remember that I liked it so much.
After dinner we showed everyone our crazy huge MAX TRAXXX race track that we made. Everyone was impressed and gave it a try. I got some hair and cat fur stuck in one of the new cars and learned how to completely disassemble it and reassemble it. Then it was time to put the kids to bed for Christmas.
On the day of Christmas Eve we were finishing up our last minute decorations, making cookies for Santa and chicken stew for the family dinner. The kids got to decorate their individual trees. They each have a mini tree that we put on a chest upstairs in the landing between all the bedrooms. Each year we get the kids a special ornament for their own trees. this year Eva got a ballerina Barbie and Andrew a Finding Dory one, that speaks. I kinda wish that they didn’t notice that their ornaments made any noise, because they insisted on my putting in the batteries. Andrew has a limit of pushing the button once a day. He only missed that by 8,999 pushes.
We then went to 4pm Mass. Andrew fell asleep on me for most of the ceremony. Then we woke up and was very groggy. He refused to have his photo taken at the Nativity Scene this year. That is too bad because we have photos of the kids in front of that from each year. I would have liked to have both kids in the photo but it makes no sense to try and make the kid take a photo.
After Mass we had the family over for Chicken stew. Allison made a double batch this year. We had to use two crock pots. Allison also made Chocolate Crinkles and they were delicious. Santa is going to get some incredible cookies tonight.
And now we are watching A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation. That and A Charlie Brown Christmas earlier tonight and we hit all the major Christmas movies that we love. Get some rest everyone and have a fantastic Christmas tomorrow.
