Who would have thought that we would be running around the neighbourhood, playing at the playground, and taking off our jackets on Christmas Eve? Not us. I love having snow at Christmas, and playing with the kids throughout last winter in the multiple feet of snow has made me a partial winter lover. Which means, I love the snow but still don't enjoy temperatures below -10. Though I wouldn't miss playing outside with the kids for anything.
There was no teeth-chattering cold on Christmas Eve, though. In the morning we finally got our popcorn/cranberry strands made and on the tree (with only a couple pricked fingers, and one of them was me!) then headed out to walk the neighbourhood in Santa hats, check the mail and play at the play ground.
As I pushed Phineas along in the stroller, Jason and I couldn't help remark how lucky we feel about these kids of ours. They are truly great kids. Obviously, we all have our learning moments around here, but I think we have generally kept a pretty good perspective in our home to help one another through frustrating bits. I love when I see the growing bond between these little siblings!
Oh, and those Santa Hats? Yeah, they were a must whenever the children went outside in the month December.
In the afternoon we prepared for a Bethlehem dinner. Jason wasn't too keen on the idea for costumes, but when Milayla suggested it one day, Atticus hopped on board quickly and I was happy to support the endeavour. Milayla was the one to make the suggestions of what we should dress up as. They certainly weren't elaborate costumes, just what we could piece together from around the house. Atticus was Joseph, Milayla was Mary, Phineas was a sheep, I was an angel, Jason was a shepherd and then our guests could don whatever they pleased. We were quite the sight to behold. The costumes were a bit tough to manage during dinner though; falling off and falling in to food as we passed it around the table. But the kids sure loved it and that made it worth it.
For next year's reference, we had crepes, injera (which presented some difficulties in cooking), veggie sticks, seasoned lentils, steamed butternut squash, crackers, hummus, cheese, grapes, olives, fish, and salad. Dessert was greek yogurt and pomegranate seeds drizzled with honey.
The guests we had over for dinner were the sister missionaries and Jye (who was fairly recently baptized and this was her FIRST christmas!!). I felt a bit of pressure for it to be a good evening as Jye's first Christmas eve ever. I really hope she enjoyed herself. We prepared some christmas stockings for our guests to take home with them to open Christmas morning. They had other places to be on Christmas Day and I am sure they had a splendid time. We read the Christmas story from Luke and had a little spiritual lesson before they left. And Atticus, our little budding photographer, took a picture of the sister missionaries and Jye.
After our guests left and we had tidied things up a bit, it was time for the traditional Christmas Eve gifts. The kids were seriously looking forward to this. For Christmas Milayla asked for Pyjamas and a doll stroller ("and perhaps a balloon, too" serious heart melter right there!) and Atticus was very quick to remind her that "of course we're getting pyjamas - we get those on Christmas Eve!". They remembered all right. And along with those pyjamas was the new Christmas book. This year it was Charlie Brown Christmas. They loved it. And we had to read it right away. The kids also put their pyjamas on asap right in the living room. Any passerby folks got quite the view, I'm sure, particularly when Phineas went running around in his birthday suit (I have a picture of that, but it's just for our family book).
The kids then played around in their pyjamas a bit before we did our traditional family pyjama pictures (that I made into our traditional family ornament after the kids were in bed!) which we did in record time. Everyone was super excited about it and I think it turned out great.
Then Phineas got into a bit of mischief and it was time for back scratch songs, love notes, and prayer. I will be forever grateful for the way I feel our family knitted together and the smiles and even sadness that we have shared and will share. We slept well. That is, after Jason and I did some Christmas prep work. We finally decided at one point that being rested was more important to a successful Christmas day than some other things we had hoped to prep that evening. And it was.
I made sure to sneak in and watch those babes of ours sleeping before I went off to bed. So peaceful. So beautiful. So perfect in my mama heart.
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