Christmas Eve 2009

Andy's family came over for our traditional Christmas eve dinner.

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What I loved about this night was really the after party party that the 5 of us had in your rooms as you were getting ready for bed.  We talked about the next day, the excitement of having presents to open and hardly being able to stand it, wondering about Santa's time frame, and I'm sure other things that have escaped our mind.  We said a prayer and cuddled together.  It was a great moment with all of us and one I will treasure.

Later on as Andy and I lay in bed reviewing the day, we "thougtht" we heard something.  So, we got out of bed around 1:00 am to check on the children.  As I went into Brenna's room, she saw her stocking at the foot of her bed and knew Santa had come to our house!  She exclaimed excitedly and started to reach out and see what was in her stocking!  I was so tired and emotionally drained from the day and I knew that I didn't have it in me for her to look through her stocking.  I didn't have the excitement it required, just then.  So, I told her, "Brenna, we're not doing this right now.  I know you're excited, but I am so tired and we just can't do this right now.  You need to go to sleep and do this in the morning."

Brenna must have been puzzled because she said, "but the boys' light is on."  At that moment, I really wanted to cry.  I just knew that the exuberance of a child at Christmas was no match for my bone weary desire for them to go back to sleep.  I told Brenna to lay her head down (I may have even physically done this for her to let her know I was serious) and headed to the boys' room ready to cry.  And walking into their room, I stopped short and wanted to laugh, but again, no energy.

Noah must have planned this before bedtime and neither Andy nor I noticed it!  When I walked into his room, Noah had a head lamp on his forehead and he was elbow deep with both hands into his stocking.  Man, we he maximizing his options to take full advantage of the stocking without having to reach over to turn on the light!!  It was a picture worth a thousand words, and I have no picture because I was really that tired.  Luckily, he was a good sport when I told him that we weren't doing this right now--that I needed some sleep even if they didn't.  I told him he needed to wait until he went to sleep and woke up when there was some semblance of light coming through their windows.  And I think because he did, Brenna did.

Thank goodness, that is exactly what happened!!  I didn't hear anything from them again until it was 7:30 am on Christmas morn!  Again, I am reminded by this of what great kids I have!