Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas eve was finally here so we packed up the kids and drove to my folks place to celebrate. We were joined by Wen & Rob, Rob's Mom, and needless to say there were 4 very excited cousins. After dinner my Mom has the kids go looking for their gifts, and after checking under beds and in closets they found to their shrieking delight, their gifts on my folk's bed hidden under some pillows and a blanket. They quickly grabbed their gifts and ran to the tree. My boys received books and Legos, Cakes got a doll and some magnetic version of paper dolls but the clothes and dolls are made of wood. Ozzie got Legos like his older cousins and sweetly had Mr. W. building for him before the night was out. (And while we are talking about Oz, may I mention his excellent headwear? He looked so cute!!) It is so fun watching the kids open their gifts. They get sooo excited. It's hard to get them to slow down so we can watch. But it seems that kids are always in a hurry to move on to the next thing, bless them. It was a really nice night, and we raced home so we could get ready for Santa!

After the boys were tucked in bed Mike and I went to the living room to wrap a few gifts and lo and behold - we heard Santa on the roof! We've been lucky to hear him up there for the last few years. He made quite a lot of noise while he was up there, and we could even hear his jingle bells on his sleigh! I ran into the kids room when they started yelling that they could hear Santa! We listened for a few minutes and then Mike came in, all concerned about all the noise he'd heard. I explained that it hadn't been the boys making all that noise, and that it must have been Santa checking to see if the boys were asleep! They quickly pulled the covers over their heads and tried as hard as they could to will themselves to sleep. A few minutes later we heard Santa leaving with his reindeer. It was such a magical night! And I was relieved that Santa didn't fall off the rainy roof!

When Santa eventually did come, he left each of the boys a thank you note folded up in their beds - maybe it had been in their hands when he left them but they'd moved during the night? Santa thanked them for the cookies and "Christmas Milk" (eggnog) and encouraged them to keep up the good work. That is what the boys woke to tell us early the next morning.