Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was wonderful...

and busy!

We decided to go and see Arthur Christmas and to get some lunch while we waited for it to start.  Mr. Orange passed out in the car as we pulled out of the driveway and we could barely get him to wake up enough to go inside the restaurant!  We ate pizza then headed to the theater.  The movie was cute, but I think their idea of how Santa works was confusing to Mr. Orange.  

We delivered neighbor presents on the way home.  Then the kids were getting crazy so they went home with Mr. Blue while I delivered a few more.  I ended up spending an hour at one of our neighbor's homes!

I hustled home so I could make dinner.  We tried a few new things this year and it turned out pretty well:

Tilapia

Shrimp

Mashed Potatoes

Wild Rice

Brussels Sprouts

Carrots

Salad

Clementines

After dinner we acted out the Nativity.  We started to read through a book that I purchased with the Christmas Story in it, but realized that we just wanted the story out of the Bible.  Mr. Blue pulled out his iPhone and we read it off of that.  It was a very condensed version this year.  Mr. Orange wanted to be a shepherd and hid by the tree until it was time to go to the stable to see Jesus.

Miss Pink was very excited to be Mary.  She got the bathroom stool, flipped it over, put a blanket in it, and gently placed her doll on the manger.  Mr. Blue was the shepherds donkey.

I couldn't help but think about where Christ was born this year.  He was born in a stable, that probably wasn't very clean.  He was truly born into lowly circumstances.  I have felt, sometimes, that Christ can't possibly know what I'm going through, but then I think about His life and even where He was born, and I realize that I can't possibly know all that He has been through.  He can truly understand my pain, heartache, sorrow, joy, happiness, peace.  He is my Redeemer and I love Him.

Before bedtime we decided to make gingerbread houses.  In my mind I knew they were going to be absolutely stunning.  Well, sometimes my mind doesn't not express itself very well.  The frosting was super hard and I ended up needing to make another batch.  The kids loved it and that's the important thing.  Actually, I'm not sure if they liked making them or eating the candy more.  We watched "A Christmas Carol" - the Jim Carey, sort of creepy, version.  We fast-forwarded through a few parts and it was okay.  

The kids wanted to give Santa their gingerbread houses again this year so we put them on the table and the kids wrote notes to Santa.  Miss Pink informed Santa that he needed to eat his clementine's before he ate the gingerbread house.

The kids said goodbye to Max, our elf, and then we read stories in bed.  They were asleep, sound asleep, by 9:30.  Mr. Blue was sound asleep at 1:00 and I was sound asleep at 2:30.