Christmas Eve

I feel like I should do a whole post on Christmas Eve because there were so many things I want to remember from Friday. It was one of those mornings where I was in a very deep sleep and I wasn't quite sure what was happening when my bed started bouncing violently. It took me a second before my brain turned the shouting turned into words, "It's Christmas Eve!! It's CHRISTMAS EVE!!!" I opened one eye to see the girls jumping up and down clapping their hands. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: "Yes, today is Christmas Eve."

Julia: "Hooray!! We put out Santa's milk and cookies for him!"

At that point I started to wake up as I wondered how she reached the milk from the top shelf of the fridge, got a cup from the cupboards and poured milk without spilling. Also, did we have cookies? Where did she find cookies?

Julia jumped off the bed as Adria continued to chant, "It's Christmas Eve! It's Christmas Eve!"

Julia (looking out the window): "Can you see Santa?! I don't see him yet! Where is he?"

Me: "Sweetheart, Santa doesn't come until you go to bed and you are asleep."

Julia: "Goodnight!"

The girls tried going to bed several times throughout the morning to see if Santa would come. We had to explain that Santa will only come after the sun goes down and EVERYONE is asleep.

Ben took the girls for the morning and did some last minute Christmas shopping. Julia quite enjoyed knowing what my gifts were and keeping it a secret. She is a great little secret keeper. She knew Ben's gifts for a couple weeks but never told.

We didn't do naps because there was already enough confusion about when Santa was coming. Instead we wrapped presents and cleaned up "for Santa" which I wish I could use as a motivation every day. The girls loved wrapping presents. All month long they have brought me every picture they draw or toy they aren't playing with and asked if they could wrap it. They love the tape most of all. It was easy to know which gifts had been wrapped by little helpers because there was so much tape it was tricky to open.

We went to dinner at Julie and Teejay's. The girls had a great time and got some fun presents. Ben and Teejay took the kids to the park to run out some energy. When they got back, the sun was going down (around 5:30) and from that point on Julia would ask if we were going to miss Santa or if we should be going to bed or what time it was every 10 or 15 minutes. I tried to set a timer, but she was still very worried about getting home in time.

When we finally did get home, it was the easiest bedtime I had ever had. Those girls were up the stairs and into their beds before I could blink, much less get jammies on or prayers said. Adria clenched her eyes shut and refused to move to get her pjs on. I'm pretty sure she feel asleep from the sheer exhaustion of clenching her eyes shut so tight. Julia asked if she could sleep with the window open so that she could hear Santa come. I reminded her that she couldn't get out of bed. She promised just to listen so I let her have the window open. Good thing it was a warm night! (I still shut it after "Santa" came.)

Ben and I were up a long time wrapping presents and getting everything just right. But I didn't mind that it was 3am because this is how my living room looked.

Perfect.