Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve, Claire thought it would never come. I however knew it would. We get asked all the time if we are going home for Christmas. I like to think we are home and that this is where we should be. In the eighteen years that we have been married we have always just been together and I find it quite relaxing. There have been some years where we have spent Christmas Eve with friends and I really enjoyed that, but we get to wait for the Big guy in the comfort of our own beds.....nice.
A question that I have been wondering about for a while is; do people have a big meal on Christmas or Christmas Eve or both? Personally I am of the opinion that one big meal is sufficient. When I was growing up we had one big meal either Christmas Eve or Christmas and a big breakfast on Christmas morning. My dad did the honors and the boys cleaned up. I am sad to say this tradition has been slow to catch on in this family....

It is quite widely known that I am not a real meat person. I think Turkey is appropriate for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is quite another matter. Eleven Christmas's ago we were invited to come to Christmas Eve dinner at my friend Diane's house. She is a marvelous cook and Italian. A beautiful and yummy dinner of Lasagna and this sort of puffy bread with cheese in it was placed before us. Needless to say it was delicious. I was hooked. Italian it would be. It has evolved to Fettuccine Alfredo with roasted Vegetables and a bit of roasted Chicken to garnish it with. I make some Rosemary bread and we dip it in olive oil and pepper. For the past couple years I have made some smoothies instead of salad and pour them into our nice glass wear. Everyone seems pretty happy with that.
Dinner conversation is a must and something I am continually working on with my kids. Christmas Eve is no different. the subject tonight was" How to Get Dad Out of Bed in the Morning." Skip is a little bah-hum-bug about getting up early. I like to open presents by tree light. The soft glow of light gives a magical feeling to everything. Skip thinks it is just hard to see. I like the magical memories the dark of an early Christmas morning bring. Skip seems to have none of these or maybe he is suppressing his inner child...who knows...

Sam's idea-" Mom after dad falls asleep, set all the clocks ahead so he thinks it is 8:00 am instead of 5:30 am." I have to say this is a pretty good idea, except as Jack points out." Uh, Dad is right here listening to the idea, so I think it probably won't work." to this Sam replies," Oh, good point."

Blake's idea-" I say we just throw water on him. that will wake him up." Jack says," I don't think he will be really in the Christmas mood after that." to which Blake so Blakley responds," So...he will be awake though...he might as well come down stairs with us and if he doesn't want to......fine, we will go down with out him."...nice....

Sam's idea#2- " We need to find out when the sun comes up in AZ. Dad said they opened presents when the sun came up. Let's Goggle it. Jack responds," Let's just call Grandma and Grandpa Ross they will know."

Jack's idea-" Dad let's just agree on 5:30am." to which Skip responds," No." " Come on....." says Jack.

Blake is not to happy with this.

Cheers!

Claire is just so excited about everything. The whole Christmas experience this year has been one of wonder and awe. She won't even open her eyes when she is unwrapping her gifts...she wants to prolong the suspense. This was driving her brothers and Dad crazy. I thought it was darling.
We have a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. They can choose which ever one they want. Needless to say they were all pleased. Claire gave a big hug to Blake because she just loved the gift and she loves to give hugs.
After Opening the one present we went into the other room took look at the Santa Tracker on line from NORAD. Santa Tracker? When we were kids we would check out the news or the radio. Claire was so excited about EVERYTHING. It is like she never had a Christmas before. She turned around and said to me, with a huge smile," Okay, we better hurry and open the rest of them before we go to bed." The girl was serious. " Honey no, we open them in the morning after we see what Santa brought." She was not happy with this response.

We hustled them up to bed and then Blake came blazing right back down." What about the cookies and apple we are going to leave out for him." Oh yes." I said," Let's get the special plate." Blake was thrilled, but not so much as Claire. She was brushing her teeth rather sluggishly, because she did not want to go to bed. Skip said," If you hurry you can help put out Santa's treat." She Squealed with a mouthful of tooth paste and just about peed her pants. Oh my, she was excited. With hands clasped together she came dancing and jumping down the stairs to help.
Sam wrote this note to Santa last week when they announced that it was an invitation Sunday. I am not quite sure where Sam stands on the issue of Santa. I was a believer and a really wanted all the magic to be true until around twelve when my parents laid the realities of life at my feet. I was pretty crushed , but understood. I just like magical happy things. I am a optimist!