Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is easily one of my favorite parts about Christmas time. While during the day we are usually busy trying to get all the last minute preparations for Christmas done, calling family and cleaning up our home, as soon as the early evening begins everything stops. We turn off all electronics, put our phones away, turn on the christmas lights and get settled in for a night without any interruptions. First up, reading the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures. While the kids don't always sit still, and we stop numerous times throughout the reading to answer various questions, I am grateful for the curiosity they have and the beautiful spirit that is always present. Then we sit down, picnic style, around the tree for a very simple Bethlehem dinner. We talked about our favorite parts of the Christmas season to that point, the Saviour and what we were most looking forward to with the upcoming Christmas celebrations. I love how long we get to sit there enjoying one another's company.

Then it was time for the usual opening of the Christmas pyjamas and head off to bed for a few Christmas songs before calling it a night. This year, we all piled into Milayla's room on account of her having a snazzy new night light that shines the stars, in changing colors, on the walls and roof. So we sing songs while we gaze at the stars. It is something that the kids enjoyed so much that we still continue to sing songs under the stars before saying goodnight; there is even the appearance of a Christmas song or two (when requested).

Once the kids were down it was time to get started on a tradition that we began last year and really enjoyed - to read A Christmas Carol in entirety. I can't wait for the kids to start growing into this tradition, but in the mean time I have really enjoyed reading it through with Jason (and this year with Keely as well!). It seems that every time I read that book I glean something new from it about the importance of the Christmas season and how to hold it in my heart the entire year. Armed with some seasonal snacks we took turns reading through the ghosts of Christmas - past, present and future. As we approached midnight it got a bit tougher to work our way through, but as we welcomed the first minutes of Christmas day and Scrooge woke in his bed chamber a changed man we become very grateful for the effort we put in to enjoy reading the book together. Though, our excitement certainly did not entice us to resist the call of our own bed chambers much long after we concluded the final chapter.

I love Christmas Eve. I am sure it will grow, adapt and evolve as the years progress but I hope the core elements and focus will always remain the same - Christ and time together.