Christmas

I have been excited about Christmas all month but I had some panicky moments on Christmas Eve when I realised that I still had things to do, and I had to work a full day and then go straight to a Christmas Eve service- it dawned on me that I really didn't have time to do it all. Well it all worked out. I was able to run an errand on a break from work and then leave about an hour early. Then I went to the Christmas Eve service at church where Rachel and I were chosen as the family to light the last nativity candle. The Christmas Eve service is my favorite of the year. This year my church added a communion service at 11:45pm. I decided I would go to that service as well and use all the in between time to wrap presents and run more errands. When I realised there were not really any stores open I gave up hope of getting all the little unimportant things I wanted to add to make my presents to make them just perfect. I am so glad because between cooking some things for the next day and wrapping presents I still barely made it to the 11:45pm service. The service was beautiful but I have to admit I kept laughing whenever I looked over at Rachel because I had woken her up to go and she does not do well being woken up. She could barely hold herself up but when I asked if she wanted to lean on me and go to sleep during the service she said "no, I need my independence." She kept staring at me all through the service with this look like I was the worst mom in the world. It was such an intense look I kept bursting into laughter everytime I caught her looking at me.

We spent the night at my parents Christmas Eve but we didn't arrive until around 1:30a. My sister Emily and Rachel set their alarm to wake up at 4am and open their stockings. I was sleeping in the same room as them and sneakily turned off the alarm before I went to bed. Neither one of them mentioned it when they woke up around 8am the next morning and we were all the better for the extra sleep. Presents were fun the next day, as was the relaxed family time. I ended up taking a delicious 4 hour nap in the middle of the day. It was such a better Christmas than last year when Rachel was really starting her testing of me. I can't believe it's only been a year. At the end of the day we went home having had a really good day but I really feel like we didn't focus on the Lord much. Next year I want to introduce some more Christ centered traditions for Christmas day- it seems like we tend to do most of that on Christmas Eve. Any good ideas?