Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year. It was especially fun this year since my sister Sharon and her family were in town. I love seeing the kids' excitement as they anticipate all of the exciting things that go along with Christmas – it's really contagious! We ate our traditional Christmas Eve dinner (clam chowder, different cheeses, sausages and crackers, fruit and veggie tray, Christmas goodies, etc. (That's what we've eaten for Christmas Eve as long as I can remember.

After dinner we had a little Christmas program where we read the Christmas story out of the Bible, sang songs, read 'Twas the Night before Christmas and played different Christmas songs on the handbell set that my mom got for Christmas this year.

After the kids were in bed "Santa" came and the adults finished getting everything ready for Christmas morning which included making the dough for the sweet rolls for Christmas morning breakfast, wrapping last-minute gifts and situating them under the tree, filling/hanging stockings (we don't have a fireplace, so the curtain rod above the back door worked nicely) and helping Santa eat the cookies left out for him. After all that was done the only thing left to do was go to bed!

When I was growing up we always went out the day after Thanksgiving and cut down a real Christmas tree, but now that my dad's gone and all of my sisters are out of the house (except my youngest sister) we don't do a real Christmas tree anymore. My mom has several fiber optic Christmas trees, but the biggest one is only 4 feet tall. Personally, I think every house needs to have a big Christmas tree or it just doesn't feel Christmas-y enough! So when I saw that Target was selling their Christmas trees for 50% off the week before Christmas I decided to take advantage of the situation and get on. I got a really good deal and I think it looks pretty nice.