Christmas Eve Traditions Unchanged

Christmas Eve traditions in the house held strong even though the kids were given the option to allow for change this year.

Yesterday was a busy day as I prepped the Christmas Day meal so little cooking prep would be needed as today is also Sunday. This prep drove the kids crazy as the smells floating throughout the house made them very hungry for the roast lamb yesterday. Yesterday I made the pumpkin and apple pies, cut half the bread into small squares, seasoned the squared and slowly browned and dried the bread crumbs and cubed squares in the oven for stuffing today. The homemade stuffing is to allow for me to eat even a small portion of stuffing.

The leg of lamb has been sitting in the fridge marinating over night again with a gluten flour mix of spices over night ready to be slowly roasted today. The potatoes and vegetable mix again also pre-cut, mixed together, tossed with oil and spices, covered with foil and sitting in the fridge and waiting to be tossed in the oven once we get home from church today.

Then last night we watched Christmas Story a Finish based story of St Nickolas, an orphaned child who becomes the towns child, then eventually finds a permanent home and how these change each others lives and in the process St Nicholas decides to leave surprise gifts to those who have helped him at on point in this life.

After the movie the kids acted out the story of Christ's birth and the circumstances leading up to his birth as they read from Luke Chapter 2 them Mark Chapter 2. This was my highlight of the evening.

Then after this and talking about this the kids knowing we have been blessed with a secret Santa as a family we gave them the option of opening their Secret Santa gifts to each other or rest of the gifts sitting on the floor. They all shouted "our secret Santa gifts!" They just had to know the reaction of their brother or sister over what was in the gifts on the floor.

The funniest was when Frank got to Ellie's gifts to him. By this point she just could not hold back her excitement any longer. To see how she would react he tossed one of his gifts to Corbyn to open. Right away she snagged that gift and ran it Daddy telling Corbyn "that is NOT yours, that is Daddy look at the tag!" and gave it to her Daddy, "get it right and read the tags!" The next time he did that she was more than excited to help open the gift, "Look Daddy, see it is a lion, it is so cool and will be fun to paint!" LOL this was before it was even unwrapped. By his third gift he did not even pass it on as her reaction was so extreme as she was about to explode. She was laughing, giggling, jumping, screaming, shouting, "Look Daddy...it says I got your back, I got your back, I got your back!" By this point Celidah said "there she finally exploded. I was wondering how long she could hold that inside."

Getting the kids to bed last night was a challenge as they knew more was to come in the morning. They have come used to the Christmas breakfast table and the stockings. This is their favorite part of Christmas morning. The stockings have a few small gifts, snacks, and breakfast items. The table it filled with fruits then set for easy eating allowing for no cooking for breakfast.

With the house set up and the kids sleeping we are off to bed and ready for Christmas to begin.