Christmas Eve

Ah, Christmas Eve. The day when you really want to emphasize to the children the meaning of Christmas. How we are celebrating the birth of our Savior and Redeemer. You hope to impress upon their small hearts what His birth meant to this world and all its inhabitants. "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'til He appeared and the soul felt His worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees." I love that song. But unfortunately, the only falling on knees at our house today was probably because someone was pushed from behind by a sibling due to excess Christmas Eve energy coming out as aggression. I remember slapping my sister, Rachel, in the face one Christmas Eve just out of sheer exhilaration. No, it wasn't last year. Actually, the kids weren't as bad as their old mom used to be. I only had to send them out of the house once today to run off some energy. And we had a perfect dinner. We dragged the kitchen table into the living room next to the Christmas tree, put out some candles on the table and got out the China. Eating dinner by candlelight and Christmas tree light really did it for the kids. They were so happy and polite during dinner and shiny happy. It was really lovely and definitely the highlight of the day. The only thing wrong was that I forgot to take a picture so I could post it. Oops. But here is one of the kids in their matching camo pj pants that I made myself.