Christmas Eve

Well Christmas turned out almost as planned. There were a couple things under our tree for our kiddos (of which I had not planned on before) but they were almost all found in my rubbermaid tubs! I collect clearance items throughout the year and when I find a special something that my kiddos or someone else I know would like, I put them away. Well, I guess James had a few tubs tucked away that I had forgotten about so, though it was forgotten about they were all well received! It was such a blessing this year to give more to those around us that was handmade, purchased throughout a year ago or well thought out. It left for a much more relaxed holiday for our family and it helped to maintain our focus on Christ and not the business. It also felt really good to not try and "keep up" with years past. For some reason I always felt like my kids would be disappointed if they were not getting what other kids were but I think that was all way more about me than it was them!

We enjoyed Christmas eve beginning at church. Our church offered three services to choose from so we opted for the 4:00 service. It was so nice to have the little ones in with us. Claire kept looking very seriously at the woman who was singing a song. Her arms were crossed and she was SO serious. I thought for a time that something had upset her. She normally sings along and claps but there was none of that. Just as I went to go and try to talk to her the song ended. She began clapping so loudly and turned to me with the largest smile saying, "that was beeeeeeotioful mommy, so beotioful!!!" I think she had been truly star struck :) 

Our friends the Snider's had us to their home for dinner and such enjoyable conversation! Jenny has always enjoyed fixing tamales for Christmas eve so we have begun to really enjoy a Mexican style Christmas eve. Jenny always puts out such a nice spread. I made my first successful attempt at Spanish rice from scratch. Rice a Roni has always been great to me but I opted to go for the gusto and try it on my own and it came out great! We opened our Christmas books and off we headed for home. Once home we opened our pj's and got all cozy for another snowy night! It was peaceful to read through the Christmas stories and get to bed at a decent hour.