Merry Christmas Eve!

In a little while, when the kids have finally fallen asleep, S and I will retire to the living room to wrap a few more presents while we do our annual viewing of It's A Wonderful Life. It ended up being a nice Christmas Eve, though it had a rough start -- I was up at 4 a.m. with BJ because he'd had a nightmare, and I never really got back to sleep. So I didn't have as much patience as I would have liked today.

Nevertheless, we managed to have many nice moments. Such as this one, when BJ came up to me while I was doing dishes after dinner and said, "Mommy, let's cuddle!" Thanks to S for snapping the pic.

I was very glad to feel fairly on the ball today, in spite of being tired. I'd finished a few last errands on Tuesday -- while BJ was at preschool (his last day before the holiday) S watched BB so that I could have some solo Get Stuff Done Time. Amazing how efficient I've gotten and how much I can get accomplished when I don't also have to watch one or more short people!

Today's big task was another batch of gingerbread cookies so we'd have some to leave out for Santa. Here they are in the middle of the table, along with carrots for the reindeer (8 of them, as requested by BJ). The kids are having bedtime snack and doing the last flap on their advent calendars.

This evening, we did our annual family tradition of the one gift on Christmas Eve: new pajamas for everybody. Here are the kids showing theirs off:


I'm not going to make baklava after all this year, considering that BB can't eat it yet (no nuts until age 3) and BJ had announced he doesn't like it. Even when I give lots away, there's lots left over, and we aren't having any company this year. So S and I don't really need to eat all that buttery goodness all by ourselves, I decided. Also decided to buck family tradition and make the Happy Birthday Jesus/Welcome Winter cake tomorrow!

By the end of the day, both kids were pretty danged wound up. Case in point: this little video clip of The Christmas Dance. Excited much???



It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to crash. I don't hear antics in the bedroom, but that doesn't necessarily mean much. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, a relaxing family day. With lots of gifts (in spite of our promises to keep it small... sigh) Here are the kids eyeing the loot!



Merry Christmas Eve! May tomorrow be full of joy and love for those of you who celebrate Christmas! (And for those of you who don't, too!)