Our Christmas Eve's go something like this, we have dinner and then we open one present each. That present is almost always a pair of pajamas. This is also a tradition that came from my childhood family traditions. We put our new pajamas on and then before bed we read The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore. I wrote about that tradition on this post.
A couple of years ago we added something to our Christmas Eve. I rented a movie that had come out in 2006 called The Nativity Story. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.
After we get our pajamas on we watch The Nativity Story and then we read The Night Before Christmas and then we go to bed.
I don't. I put Haley in bed and then I go to church.
I play hand bells in our church choir and I always go to the Christmas Eve service at 10:00PM. It is a time for me to truly reflect on why we celebrate this holiday. It is a candlelight service and it is beautiful.
I enjoy it.
I hug everyone before I leave and then I come home and get the presents out from their hiding places in the garage and I put them under the tree. I fill the stockings and then I go to bed.
Last year after I had made about six trips back and forth from the garage to the living room carefully, quietly placing the presents under the tree and filling the stockings I was coming in to the house for the last time when I heard a small sound like the coo of a dove...
I looked up and there was Haley looking at me over the low wall at the top of the stairs. I smiled at her and then went upstairs and gently nudged her back in to her room. I covered her up and gave her a kiss and closed her door.
I breathed a sigh and went to bed.
After the festivities the next morning Haley's Big Sis came up to me. She gave me a sheepish look and said "I saw Santa Claus last night."
"You did?"
"Yep." She said.
So the cat is out of the bag.
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