On the Eve of Christmas

When people talk about Christmas traditions I always think about Christmas Eve. All our family traditions that meant the most happened the night before Christmas. This year my parents did it again, making it my favorite of all the festivities. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Here are the highlights......



Jenny and Mary Kate made some welcome signs in hopes that Santa might come for a visit before starting his Christmas night deliveries.



He did in fact show up, and it was a Christmas miracle that no one ran away from him to hide in the basement. Everyone sat on his lap, even baby Lydia. She really stared hard, totally confused by the man with the long white beard.



This particular Santa is special to our family. He lived down the street while we were growing up.



Here's mom setting our table with the finest of China. We're happy with paper plates and Dixie cups. Doing the dishes takes all of five minutes.



If someone where to ask me what Christmas tasted like I would say Italian spaghetti and meatballs. Here they are simmering away in the slow cooker. We've had these every Christmas Eve since I can remember. The recipe comes from my dad's Italian aunt Francis. They're delicious on Christmas Eve and even better the next day in a meatball sub. These meatballs are labor intensive so I appreciate mom and dad making them every year. I've only made them once myself, but I'm sure I will be making them more in the future.




The after dinner entertainment is a Nativity play. Mary Kate and Jenny went all out this year planning all the details and assigning parts. Uncle Andrew got to be Joseph, Jenny was Mary, Kate was the angel of the Lord, and Paul, Jonathan and Jeffrey were the three Wise men. These casting choices may be questionable, but you have to work with what you've got, and we've got limited talent. By the way, I was cast as the donkey.

I think my parents did a great job putting on appropriate expressions of awe when seeing the Angel of the Lord come down in a white bath towel, stand on a ottoman, and proclaim the birth of baby Jesus.

Eric ran down to Burger King to get the crowns for these little wise men. He felt guilty just taking the free crowns, so he purchased a small order of chicken nuggets and brought them home as an appetizer. With the Burger King crowns perched on their heads, these boys make quite the trio. As you can see, Jonathan was not happy with his role as one of the three kings.

After the Nativity comes present opening time. It's always a frenzy, with wrapping paper flying and kids squealing with glee. Check out Jeffrey's face in this picture. He just discovered that Grandma and Grandpa gave him two new Tonka trucks! (You may have to click on the picture to see his expression)

My favorite gift of the day was from my brother Jeff to the boys. It's a book called Walter the Farting Dog. I'd never heard of this book, but apparently it's a best seller these days. That's sort of a sad commentary about our times, but the book is actually side splitting. I could hardly read it because I was laughing so hard. (I realize that's sort of a sad commentary about me) I will be purchasing the sequels.



Thanks family (especially mom and dad) for making this a great day! Now I have even more great memories to add to my collection.




Here are the kids in their new Christmas Eve jammies. Almost everyone has the PJ tradition, but it's fun, even if the boys jammies are bright yellow and plastered with Sponge Bob.