Christmas Eve revisited

I know Christmas is so two weeks ago, but I spent my holiday season with my kids so I'm behind on archiving our memories for this time.

My last post was about the wonders of Christmas Eve candle light service and guess what. We didn't even go
Layla screamed all day. Just all day. I didn't see a point in going to just sit in the nursery all night. She was rotten too. As I cleaned my phone got lost and I spent half an hour digging through trash because I had to reply to a text from our pastor before service started. She screamed the whole time. That kind of made the decision for me. We were skipping the candle light service.

I hated it , but I hated the thought of us going more. What makes it special is the time together, the little kids faces lit by the soft glow of candlelight and that was just not going to happen with me Layla and Ella in the nursery.

Instead, we stayed home and ate sandwiches from our deli platter that we buy every year for Christmas. We opened Christmas eve gifts in a leisurely manner- even taking pictures together in our matching christmas pjs. Yes we did.


I like to watch Polar Express on Christmas eve with the kids and this year with Laci's wavering belief it was a must.

I cried. Alot. At strange moments too.

Shortly after the main boy gets on the train they pull through a small town with decorated store windows. The kids look in Awe as they pass by Christmas themed displays, especially moving Santa. All the kids gasp and smile At the sight of this Santa, including the main character boy- until he, and we through a zooming in on a gear, sees that it's just a wind up device.

I've never noticed this before somehow. The camera zooms in on a gear and then as it pans out we see an old style turn key As Santa turns to the side. The boys smile falls as does his belief.

This one scene summed up this year for Laci to me. She still had that child like belief lingering, but her eyes were opening to the world around her and zooming in on reality. It just made me think of all those zippers on the Disney characters this year.

So I teared up.

There were cookies to be selected and left out for Santa, reindeer food to be spread the real Christmas story to be read from the Jesus story book bible yet so we didn't finish the movie sadly.

Laci did sit with her bell Santa left her years ago,throughout the movie and traditional activities and declared she can still hear it ring.

I hope, in some way, she always does.



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Tony reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, the last thing as do before bed on Christmas Eve every year. I love traditions.
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