Christmas Eve

This year was the first year we spent Christmas Eve at our own house.  Here's a little glimpse of our evening:

 

Xavier & Easton all dressed up for the Christmas Eve Church Service

 

 

 

When we got home from church, I put the Canadian Meat Pie in the oven to bake, then the boys each got to open one present...

 Easton always seems so unamused, especially when I

have the camera out!  Xavier was excited about opening a
present and was, therefore, completely oblivious to the camera!

Easton tearing into his 1st present of Christmas 2012

 

Xavier was too excited about his present to even look at the camera!

 

 

After opening their 1 present each, the boys headed upstairs to get into the tub (and try out their new toys - a Hot Wheels Splash Track and a Whale Shower Spout).  I left Mike in the bathroom with the boys in the tub and headed down to the kitchen to check on how supper was coming along, when I heard the noise the always makes my heart sink - the fire whistle.  I went back upstairs and told Mike I thought the fire whistle was going off...and off he went to help fight the fire with the rest of the volunteer fire fighters.

 

I finished scrubbing the boys in the tub and got them nice and cozy in their PJs, then headed downstairs with them to have Christmas Eve supper.  I never imagined we would have been having our 1st Christmas Eve supper at home without Dada, but I kept envisioning a family out in the cold while their house was on fire watching their young children's Christmas go up in flames as the firefighters tried to save what they could for the family.  Thankfully, that was NOT what happened - there was a fire at the elevator that the firefighters were able to put out and return home within a couple of hours.

 

After supper, the boys and I read a Christmas book (Xavier picked The Grinch) and then they crawled into their beds, excited to have Santa come soon.  After tucking them both in, I headed downstairs again, when I realized I didn't have Xavier put out the milk & cookies for Santa!  So I headed up to his room to remind him.  He quickly went downstairs, picked out 3 perfect cookies to put on a plate and filled a glass with milk to leave for Santa.  As he was climbing the stairs to return to bed, he exclaimed, "This is just the BEST Christmas EVER!!!!"  I swear I could feel the excitement radiating off of him!  It was one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed.  Then it was off to bed to wait for Santa to come in the morning!

 

 

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. ~Harlan Miller