Trust me. I do this all the time.: Its Finally Christmas!

And the finally - or already? - it was Christmas Eve. And much to Sam's dismay, and soon the rest of us as well, since he asked 8000 times that day if it was time to go yet, Christmas Eve was a full 24 hours again this year. No ability to fast forward to the good stuff, sorry bud.

So we did our best to fill the day. I was done wrapping, although Chris had some to finish. I prepped some food for the evening, cleaned up the house. And the kids and I made Reindeer Food! What's that you ask? It really doesn't matter, its whatever you find in your kitchen that year. This year it was bread crumbs, red food coloring and red hots that we "baked" in the toaster oven.

Happily our last Christmas party of the year was on this happy day, so we were able to quit with the questioning around 3:00 when we left the house. And we thanked the hosts for providing Sam with something to do, and they indicated this issue was a key player in their decision to host.

After the party it was off to church, our own church this year, for Christmas eve service. The church gave one enormous gift to its children this year: an indoor playground. Because sometimes construction is concluded on time and slightly under budget and it just so happens that you can open the new wing of your church on Christmas Eve. Sometimes those things "just happen." And all the kids played like they'd never seen a playground before.

It was really nice to see our own friends at church on Christmas - a first for us in our adult lives. While the service and music were lovely, I am disappointed that our church does not allow candles, even on Christmas eve. Even Sam wanted an explanation on that one.

Then it was home for our traditional Cheese Soup dinner. Sam ate pretzel rolls, and I'm not actually sure that Annabelle ate anything at all, while we tracked Santa's progress on the radar and chatted about all of the very important things that needed to be done that evening. Before I knew it, Sam was practically begging me to get a move on, get the stuff done, so that they could get into bed. He was growing simultaneously excited and nervous that Santa was getting so close! And then Annabelle started to put the whole story together and realized that there would be reindeer and a strange man at her house. She began to ask lots of questions about her personal safety. Smart little cookies - the whole Santa thing is super-creepy if you look at it the wrong way. We assured her the the reindeer would stay outside and that Santa wouldn't touch her. I tried to tell her that Santa wouldn't come in her room, but Sam corrected me, because that's where he leaves the stockings. But Sam also reassured his sister that they really did want Santa to come in the house, and she believed him more than me.

Anywho, we got to work. We spread our reindeer food outside - after I began with the grass, Sam insisted we throw it onto the roof. So much more logical! Then we all put on our matching Christmas Jammies and set out a plate of cookies, with carrots, for Santa. We read the Christmas story from the bible and T'was The Night Before Christmas, courtesy of a recordable storybook from Gommy and Papa. And it was the fastest bedtime in our family's history.

And then Chris and I prepped and enjoyed our "grown up party." I forgot that I'd mentioned it to Sam sometime in the past, but he didn't and he asked me this year if he was old enough for it. Hahaha No. It actually took us awhile to get all of our indulgent treats prepped, gifts laid out, the turkey marinading for the next day, so it was late when we started our movie, but we made an excellent to decision to buck a small part of the tradition and switch to what he and I consider to be an ultiamte Christmas Classic for the ages: Home Alone. And I stayed awake for the whole movie. And cleaned up afterwards (only because I knew I'd be sad to wake up to a mess on Christmas morning).

And Christmas morning came for Sam sometime in the 5:00 hour, and no one who's ever met him was surprised. He was given his tablet and told to entertain himself for an hour in bed. And then the festivities began.

Chris took no more than one picture during stocking-opening before Annabelle decided that she must take a picture with every single thing she pulled out. I will spare you the 8 pictures of her holding a mini candy cane - they are all different candy canes - that she insisted he take. And Sam could not wait to head to the tree, but wow did we need coffee first, and to "make sure that Santa had come to the tree," so he built his first lego creation of the day on bedroom floor, before 7am.

And then joy filled our home as the kids ran to their bounty. We took our time opening, and allowed the kids to stop and play with whatever they wanted to whenever they wanted to. We ate breakfast at some point, our traditional cinnamon roll tree (Sam discovered he loves cherries) and then went back to it. Annabelle stopped to play more than Sam did, but that's to be expected by their personalities. I was pleasantly surprised when she opened her Daniel Tiger toy and declared, before the paper was removed, "It's a trowy!" (trolley). So awesome to give your kids a gift they love before they even get to touch it. I got a similar reaction out of Sam when he opened is giant Lego arctic base camp set. Hugs and thanks you's for that one.

And Chris and I opened gifts, too! I even got a lime tree this year, because my husband is awesome and pays attention to me.

We had a lazy afternoon, the kids never got dressed and I'm sure it was after 2 before Chris and I put clothes on. I even read a little bit! Sam built Lego's for about 8 hours. At first he needed a great deal of help, but his confidence grew quickly and he was completely independant by the time we were prepping dinner. Although we enjoyed sitting with him while he built. Annabelle put on pretend make up more times than I can count. And they played together and separately. It was actually wonderful to give both the kids a great deal of my undivided attention that day - I wish I could make more days feel like that.

We did fried turkey and cheesy ranch potatoes for dinner. The turkey process was more stressful this time, because Chris wanted to be relaxing with the family rather than tending to it, and it is not a labor-free process. Not entirely sure we'll do that on Christmas again, but we'll see. He did make himself a nice set up outside! We didn't do a formal dinner or anything, and Sam spent the whole time begging to get back to his Lego's. Maybe we'll work on that part of the day for the future.