Friday, December 24, 2010

"Tomorrow is CHRISTMAS!!!"

All the excited little people are tucked into bed after what I think was a pretty successful day of  w a i t i n g patiently.

We celebrate most of the big-deal-to-kids Christmas stuff on Christmas Day so, while I really treasure the peace that can settle in on Christmas Eve, our kids tend to get a bit antsy. It's understandable.

To remedy that we took a walk/bike ride before lunch and set each of the kids up with a good helping of Alone Time when we returned. (A walk/bike ride for us includes Daniel and Michael on big kid two-wheelers, Mercy on a red trike and a stroller to accomodate James and possibly Josiah. Jo opted for running along side us most of this walk. I think his run is hilarious. At 2.5 years, he does something funny with his arms while he runs so that he looks like he's trying to take off into the sky. Oh and Bob pushes the stroller while I waddle.)

A restful naptime for the littlest ones and then we headed out to deliver a few plates of cookies to our neighbors. And we discussed many times why it's okay to give such yummy cookies away. Some children were disturbed to see their favorites leaving the house. They'll get it, in time, right?

After a dinner of pizza and our last advent celebration, we surprised the kids with their new jammies from Grammy and loaded them up in the car for a Christmas Light tour.

And like I said above, they are now all in bed*.

Daniel in Army Tanks, Josiah in Dinosaurs, Mercy in Butterflies, Michael in Spiders and James in Space Men

An impromptu dance of Ring o' Round the Rosie

Some of our traditions have changed as our family has grown. We've traded a Roast Beast for homemade pizzas, exchanged a big extended family event for a quieter "just us" day, and we don't attend a church that has a late night Christmas Eve service like the candlelight one I loved as a child.

None of that has changed the beauty and the peace of this day for me. Some of those new traditions have blessed us with a more restful day. We've got to be rested for tomorrow, the BIG ONE!
I love Christmas Eve!


*I let Daniel know that waking everyone up at 2am to tell them that it might be morning was not part of the plan for tonight. (This has happened, and not even on Christmas.) Michael asked for an approximate time that we might be getting up. 7am was my answer.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight! Have fun Christmas morning! Love, grandad

Stacy said...

I loved reading about your celebrations, Rebecca!

You're such a wise mama, too! :)