Christmas Eve Night

Just so nobody wonders, I am not posting this blog while neglecting my family on Christmas morning. They are all still sleeping and I have been awake for a long time because, as my sisters-in-insomnia know, wakefulness strikes even when one has gone to Midnight Mass.

John has shown much interest in our nativity scene in the last month. Often he queries me yet again on who this person is and who that person. Yesterday he noted once again that Baby Jesus was not in the manger. I said I wouldn't put him in there until his birthday the next day. Apparently John thought that I didn't have a Baby Jesus, instead of that I was waiting to put him out. John said, "I know! I have an idea!" He ran upstairs to his bedroom where he got the Baby Jesus out of his Playmobile nativity scene that his uncle and aunt gave him for his birthday. He rushed down, put the figure in the manager, and declared, "There! That should be good!"

Christmas Eve dinner was a simple affair for our little family: baked ziti, peas, and store-bought rolls. Here John shows you a piece of pasta. Dinner was meatless because Chris learned that Christmas Eve was traditionally a day of fasting and abstinence.

We purchased luminaries this year from the local Boy Scout troop. In theory, all the neighbors are supposed to put out luminaries lining our front yards so that, when people drive around to see Christmas lights, it is that much more festive. But few people did it, so it was mostly just a $6 donation to the Boy Scouts, which is okay too! John got a major thrill from scooping the sand into the paper bags and watching Daddy light candles inside them--all while outside in the dark!

Now the table is set in festive manner, I am cooking breakfast, and the tree and stockings are ready, as above, for the sweet children to wake up!

Merry Christmas to all!