Daniel, realizing I haven't been tormented enough with the song " Christmas Shoes" this year, makes it his quest to drive me crazy - I keep finding it playing on laptops, embedded in links in my email.....he also sings it in his funny elf voice.
We found out that Evan's elf name is Squeezy McJingles, and no one can say it with a straight face. Speaking of Squeezy, Evan spent all morning helping me clean and cook and hugging me out of his sheer excitement about Christmas. Ryan on the other hand, keeps leaning on me because he has a cold. He was feverish the other day, but I know he is on the mend because he cannot.stop.complaining.about it.
Tonight is our annual Christmas Eve party. We basically invite a bunch of neighbors and friends that stay in town alone. It is great fun, it is a group of people who never cross paths except at our house Christmas Eve. Grammy makes her meatballs, Evan makes Rotel dip, Daniel makes deviled eggs, Ryan wraps the last of the gifts for me, and Mike goes out on the last errand run before the party. You know, the one where I call him 6 times and say, " Oh, one more thing, honey......" He really loves that. NOT.
Every year, the activities change. Some years, the kids play board games, other years they make a fire in the fire pit and run around playing hide and seek in the dark. One year, many moons ago, they all took turns running a plastic knife thru a candle flame in the dining room until I smelled burning plastic, caught them, and chased them away. They are now teenagers and laughed about this tonight. This year the activities seemed to be garage floor hockey and video games....
"Don't worry that I am all dressed up nicely to serve Mass, I can play garage hockey in my suit, my mom doesn't mind!
The dads played a game called "Try to describe the Johnny Walker Using the Same Words That are on the Box's Description." Who would have guessed "dark chocolate" is an undertone? Not me!
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| Chris needed to phone a friend I guess. |
The last friends left about 11pm and everyone changed their clothes and headed out to Midnight Mass. It was beautiful. We are so blessed to be able to see the face of God in Jesus. Such a simple gift, yet so profound. I was very blessed to have had my family and friends around me tonight at Mass.
After Mass, the kids convinced me we really could just stay up and open presents and that would be AWESOME! So we did.
Brothers give brothers the best presents!
Every Christmas, I try to enjoy every minute and complain about nothing. For so many years, we added people to our Christmas. Babies were born, people married and we gained aunts, uncles, and cousins. We made new friends. One year, it dawned on me that one day, we would have to celebrate a Christmas with someone missing. Every year I worked really hard to enjoy all of it and be happy to have everyone around us. Last year was the first Christmas with someone missing and it was super hard. My goal was to make it whiz by and just get through it. Keeping up the tradition of a Christmas Eve party was a huge crutch that helped me get through last year. This year it was nice to be able to enjoy fun again.
I am now, officially too tired to edit my ramblings...Merry Christmas everyone!
