Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve

Two journal entries leading up to Christmas, interspersed with pictures:

Monday, December 23, 2019 (or, as the kids call it, Christmas Eve-Eve)
I ran 9 miles this morning. I don't know why, probably just because I could. It was nice not to be confined to the boring driveway loops. This afternoon after Jay and I went on a library date, Jeff and I ran errands together. We got tamales and salad for our Christmas food. Tonight Jeff dressed up as Santa Claus. It was hilarious as always. He had me dress up as Rudolph, and we all ran next door and saying we wish You a Merry Christmas to the Andersons. It was silly. I wrote this with voice to text on my phone because I'm too tired to try typing it.

My nine miler took me into town. It always amuses me to take a picture of the "Welcome to Sunnyside sign when it's not sunny. 

 Amber put on Jeff's new Rudolph suit. He dresses up as a holiday character and takes his classes caroling in French around the hallways at school every December.

 Library date with my Jay!

Leading up to Christmas, we opened gifts from family members who live far away. Sunday we opened gifts from my parents, Monday we opened gifts from the cousins, and Tuesday we opened gifts from Uncle Sam (Jeff's brother, not America). The cousins sent Amber a fake makeup kit, and she has been carefully applying pretend eyeshadow and face powder every day since. 

SANTA! 

 I love our Santa-Jeff tradition. No malls or chaotic photography with a stranger for us!

 Jeff wanted me to wear his Rudolph costume, and we couldn't stop laughing when I sat on his knee.

 We love our Santa! Our neighbors probably think we're crazy for running over in the pitch dark and singing one verse of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, saying a quick hi, and then running away again, haha. The crotch of the Rudolph onesie sagged down to my knees, so it was more of a penguin-waddle than a run for me...

Journal entry #2:

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

The stockings are stuffed, the presents wrapped and laid out in a humble, and the hallway is barricaded with empty boxes. It's Christmas Eve! 6 gifts per kid looks like a whole lot when they're all heaped together in a small room by a small tree. 6x3 does equal 18 after all, plus the gifts Jeff and I are giving each other, and we wrapped in big boxes this year. A little extravagance is fun sometimes, although every year after Christmas I resolve to do less the next year, and it always seems big anyways! It started out as 3 gifts per kid, but then some of the things cost more than others and it eventually kind of evened out at 6 per kid. My minimalist side feels guilty, but the kids are going to love it and I don't think they are spoiled.

Today was low key and easy going-- my favorite kind of holiday. Jeff and I both exercised this morning: I ran, he worked out at the high school gym. Jeff and the kids watched the second half of a star Wars movie while I ran. Dan and Leslie stopped by with a plate of cookies. After lunch, Jeff took all 3 kids to see the newest star Wars movie. I stayed home and talked on the phone to mom and then watched a Christmas chick flick (The Princess Switch). After my movie, I worked in the kitchen baking a chocolate chip sour cream pound cake and the last of the chocolate cookies. I also assembled tomorrow's cheesy potatoes and chopped the lettuce for our salad. Last, I laboriously stirred sugar and pecans on the stove for 15 minutes. A few nuts jumped out of the pan as I stirred, and without thinking I grabbed one with my bare hand. The melted sugar coating it was so hot, it stuck to my finger and burned the pad of my middle left finger. It HURT!

We microwaved the tamales we got at Garcia's yesterday and had them with salad for Christmas Eve dinner. During dinner the kids were loud and obnoxious and it stressed me out. Sigh. I suppose Christmas is not enough to change temperments. I remember Christmas always being magical enough to make everyone get along well when I was a kid. Maybe when my kids are older! Next it was time to read Luke 2 and act out the nativity. Jay was being squirrelly and Rose was overdoing it with her angel wings sheet. Amber was the most docile, oddly enough.

The kids were in bed by 6:45, all sleeping in Jay's room. Jeff and I watched some Mary Tyler Moore and waited till 9:15pm to do the stockings.

We forgot to set a gift opening time for the morning... Uh oh.

Uncle Sam sent flashlights and water bottles. When asked for advice on gifts, I go practical. The kids love them! 

A Christmas miracle--my sour cream chocolate chip pound cake bundt came out in one piece!  

I was candying pecans in sugar for our fancy Christmas salad and thoughtlessly picked up a fallen molten hot sugar coated pecan with my bare hands. The hot sugar stuck to my finger and gave me a tiny but painful blister.

 Garcia's tamales for Christmas Eve dinner! Two dozen fed us for more than one meal, but YUM. 

 Winner, winner, tamale dinner!

Traditional after dinner Christmas Eve live nativity and Luke 2 read-through. We used one of the new flashlights for baby Jesus, just like they do in the Ramona Quimby books. We are lit-fans.

 Christmas Eve sleepover in Jay's room!

Peaceful glowy Christmas anticipation. I love when the kids are asleep, stockings are stuffed, gifts ready, and that happy anticipation hangs in the quiet house.