Christmas Eve!

Today I woke up to two adorable children reading together!  Brian was sharing some books with Kendall (or maybe she commandeered them!) and he was doing his very best to read them to her, filling in the gaps from memory.  The kids enjoyed having the morning at home, without having to rush off to school–getting to play Duplos in your pajamas is always special!  After awhile, we did need to get them ready for the day, and I put them back in their Christmas tees (slightly better luck on a picture of Kendall’s this time–but only slightly!)  The kids worked on their Lego advent calendar while they waited for Nana Rosemary and Sytse who were going to join us for a late Christmas Eve lunch.  I liked how well things went last time with the food catered from Whole Foods, I decided to do it again this year.  So easy, and delicious!  (Even if there was a little drama with a mixup on one item this time–but it all worked out.)  😉

Soon, Nana and Sytse arrived and came bearing an amazing tray of goodies, and a cute little pair of wooden clogs for Kendall.  They were a little snug, but we got them on for a little bit (somehow Kendall’s tiny little feet have suddenly jumped almost two sizes–a little irritating for me, since I’d bought her shoes she’ll never wear now!)  We managed to keep the kids from tearing into the candy for just a little bit, and they played with the grandparents while I got the food on the table.  We had our lunch, of our Christmas ham and lots of vegetables and sides.  The kids did well, but I knew what they really wanted (treats, of course!)  We took a break from the food, and I got Kendall cleaned up from lunch and put her in one of her many holiday dresses.  Then, we let the kids open up their presents from Nana and Sytse.  Brian got one of the big items he’d been wanting–a red Plasma Car!  Oh, he was so excited, he rode it around the living room in thunderous circles.  Of course, this nearly set off World War III with Kendall, who was deeply offended that she didn’t have one of her own!  We didn’t think of that..  I suppose another Plasma Car will be be in our future here shortly.  Some other highlights include a really cute Boo plush toy (it seems the Boo merchandising empire has expanded from the book that Roger and Cheryl got the kids awhile back!) and one of Brian’s favorite books from visiting the library, “The Marshmallow Incident” (by the same author that wrote “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”).   Brian loved that book so much, we renewed it over and over and he just dissolved into giggles at the silly antics of the knights and villagers!  Kendall got a nice tea set and a cute Hello Kitty charm–she chews on things a lot less now, but we still might wait just a little bit longer before she can wear it!

After presents, Brian begged and begged for Nana and Sytse to play hockey with him, so we all went downstairs to play for awhile.  I gave Brandon one of his more “gag” gifts–a Star Wars sweatshirt styled like one of those ugly holiday sweaters!  I thought it was pretty darn awesome, but I didn’t know if Brandon would like it as much as I do–luckily, he thought it was great, and appreciated the details like I do. 🙂  Soon after that, Nana and Sytse had to leave, and Brian was a little disappointed that they didn’t stay for dessert.  I was, too–because of the mix-up at Whole Foods I’d ended up with two cherry pies!  Kendall headed off to her nap, and Brian got to enjoy a red velvet cupcake from Nana–pretty awesome!  After that, Brian wanted to start building his new Lego City Coast Guard Helicopter set, and I couldn’t think of a reason why not, so we went for it.  He built it almost entirely by himself!  It has a cool windsurfer guy and a special white shark (usually Lego sharks are gray!)  We’re telling ourselves that it’s a Great White shark.  Since Brian had the build well in hand, I pained my nails with some wacky red and green glitter so I could feel a little festive.  Brandon and I thought we’d have some coffee and a cupcake of our own, and to our horror, we discovered that our little K-cup brewer was no longer working.  We started wigging out, since tomorrow is Christmas, and Roger is going to arrive!  We thought that arriving to a busted coffee maker, after dealing with all the other indignities of air travel, would just be too much to subject Roger to, so, we started thinking of options real fast.  We had only an hour or so until the stores started closing for the holiday, so I grabbed my Christmas cash from Rosemary and rushed out to Target.  That’s a new one for me, hitting a store during the last hour of shopping on Christmas Eve–it was…  Surreal.  But in any case, I rushed to the Keurig aisle, and I may have done a little end-zone-style celebrating after I lifted the very last coffee maker into my cart.  Whew!  Christmas is saved, there will be convenient coffee for all (plus, we got the upgraded model with the reservoir, so it’ll be even faster now.) 😉
I booked it back home with my prize, and we got the new coffeemaker unpacked and set up.  The kids liked the box (no surprise there!)  We had some ham sandwiches for dinner with the Christmas ham and yeast rolls left over from our lunch.  Kendall really liked the cornbread this evening!  We got through bathtime as quickly as we could, and put the kids in their new gingerbread boy and girl pajamas.  I prevailed upon them to let me take some photos in their cute PJs in front of the tree, offering up the bribe of an extra treat before they really had to go to bed.  They hammed it up with Boo and their Santa hats, and I just tried to get them to look my way now and again.  😉  We let them have a little bit of egg nog and some gingerbread cookies and white chocolate angels.  We used Kendall’s tea set for the kids to have their treat.  Kendall really liked the nog, and kept slamming her cup down asking for more!  But Brian was less enthused.  He was more into his cookies and treats.

Eventually, even we started questioning our parenting, letting the kids stay up late and have all this sugar..!  So we shuffled everyone back upstairs, brushed teeth really well, and then read some of our traditional Christmas Eve books, including the copy of Twas The Night Before Christmas that I read when I was a kid.  Kendall was absolutely wild, thanks to the sugar, the excitement, and the lateness of the hour, but still really cute.  😉  It was a challenge, but we finally got the kids settled, and warned them that there is to be absolutely no sneaking downstairs in the morning without us!

It was already pretty late, but our night was just starting–we had a full night of helping Santa with his work ahead of us!  I may have caught him on film. 😉  We read Brian’s letter to Santa, and decided it would be cool if they got a letter in return.  We set up the kids’ play kitchen (complete with cookies baking in the oven–it’s what the realtors do to make it seem like home!), arranged all the gifts into two mountains of presents, set up a Mameshiba display for them to find as they come downstairs, and decided to start a new tradition with candy in the wooden shoes.  We were up so late getting things all set up, by the time we could relax, it was pretty hard to wind down.  We decided that what Santa really wants isn’t milk & cookies, but a little wine and cheese would really hit the spot. 😉  It was nearly 3am, but I decided to give Brandon his non-gag present, particularly because the kids weren’t around, and I knew he wouldn’t want to take any risks with it!  It was a super-rare 7″ record, the very first independent label release from his favorite band, The Smashing Pumpkins.  He was so surprised, he wasn’t even sure what he was looking at to start with, but then, the appreciation kicked in, and even though it was so late, we had to go listen to it.  I was pleased, the months of searching had paid off! 😀