I flew out last night, arriving in Little Rock, AR, around 11:30pm - Abby picked me up, then rehearsed her crazy shopping escapades on the Eve of the Eve of Christmas, which worked as a precursor to our decision to check out her local Walmart (working 24 hours during this festive family holiday time) to find something that the Little Rock Walmart was not stocked in. I was working on a week with very restless sleeps, and I was also coming from an hour ahead, so when we got to Walmart around 1am, it was really 2am. I'm not sure how I made it through that store without totally collapsing, but I do know that I felt very welcomed by my air mattress in my "bedroom" when we finally made it home.
And that 5 1/2 hours of sleep last night was much needed. So was a lot more, but hey, I'll take what I can get.
Christmas Eve has been full of family and children and tiredness - so about the normal Eve for me. The real festivities started in the evening, which they usually do, when we had fondue for a dinner - a Frandsen Family tradition. It was delicious, and as an improvement from last year, Abby was didn't over-season the meat. Way to go, Abs, I knew you could do it!
Then we made graham cracker shacks - which turned into wide open snowscapes for most of us. The icing, bless its heart, would not harden, so Abby's first attempt at a standing residence fell flat - pun totally and completely intended! - so we decided to shoot for an open field of snow to decorate. I started working on a nice scene, my story all coming together in my mind. Then little nephew Will liked what he was seeing and joined in. Suddenly I was making up all sorts of implausible stories for the various additions, and I had more mini gummy bears and sour patch kids than I planned and the populating of the little village I had resigned to him starting got way out of hand.
I was getting ready to go all China on my scene and disallow sour patch families more than one mini gummy child, when Will got distracted and moved to something a little more profitable to himself:
But all in all, the snowscape looked pretty good:
A bit chaotic perhaps, but good.
Niece Ellee did a pretty good job on her scape as well (she and I shared a "grinch" theme in one corner of both of our scenes), and Abby created a cute little "love shack" for her and Devn:
Then we finished up the night with the kids watching "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" while Abby and Devn got the Christmas Eve present ready. Then we opened the Eve present, which was Christmas jammies - Ellee got cute silkies, Will was a dinosaur, and Greg was almost a reindeer, but his head was too big for the matching cap. Don't worry, we forced it on that large noggin anyway. But the best part? The matchy-matchy of it, and I'm not talking about the kids. The best part is that at this very moment, 3 adults are walking around the same house in matching gray shirts and blue scrub pants. And the kids are nowhere near matching. Sweet, huh? No? Awkward, you say? In a slightly fun and uncomfortable, giggle-inducing way, yes it is indeed a little awkward...
The kids are all asleep now, having enjoyed a hand/foot puppet version of the Nativity, where we remember why Christmas is even something to celebrate. Devn did a good job of explaining to Ellee that Christmas is important because we celebrate the baby Jesus and what His life - and death - was for. It would seem her reasoning that we like getting presents wasn't an acceptable answer to why we celebrate Christmas. And it all ended with a sweet prayer by Ellee, blessing Santa Claus and his grandma, that they can make it around the world to all the children safely. It was maybe one of the sweetest prayers requesting pagan wishes that I've ever heard.
But now, I'm off to help, um, Santa, yes him, to get some gifts ready for the children. He's got a busy night, so I thought I'd offer whatever help I can give. This is, after all, the best time of year to give service.
So Merry Christmas Eve, all! Enjoy your Christmas - I'm certainly intending to!
1 comment:
totally laughed out loud at numerous moments of that post! especially us grown ups matching without the kids included! I had intentions of them matching too, I promise!!!
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