Three Days of Christmas

On Christmas Eve we began our three days of Christmas. On Wednesday after going to the library I had picked up some donuts for our Christmas Eve breakfast. I figured since we have started having donuts for breakfast on our birthdays, we could do the same for Jesus' birthday.  I had not trusted Oliver to leave the presents wrapped under the tree, so we waited until Wednesday evening to put them under the tree; the kids enjoyed helping me arrange them under the tree.  After eating our donuts on Thursday morning, we opened our presents. Nadia had the job of passing out the gifts to everyone. I loved the fact that the kids each had gifts for each other and for Paul and I that were a surprise because they had purchased them at AWANA with the shares they had earned (the "money" give in AWANA). For example, Ian's gifts for Nadia from AWANA were a small Lego set (about 100 pieces) and a My Little Pony Play-doh set. Oliver gave me a really nice oven mitt. Nadia gave me two necklaces, two pairs of earrings, and one bracelet.

Christmas Eve is Nadia's half-birthday. Not too many kids get gifts every year on their half-birthday. Speaking of which, the first few years of her life I wrote a post about her on the 24th of every month and then eventually cut back to every 3 months and then every 6 months. Since I didn't write one this year, I guess as of age seven I have officially cut back to only one such post a year. I am still planning to write a post every 3 months for Oliver and every 6 months for Ian for the time being. The kids enjoyed opening their presents and then making good use of many of them over the course of the day. Oliver shared some of his goldfish crackers with his siblings at lunch. Nadia and I played our first game of Mancala after the boys went to bed. Nadia and Ian tried out the Tangled Wii game we gave Nadia. Ian's favorite gifts from us were the Star Wars "lego" minifigures, a Monsters Inc scare floor, and a large Sully stuffed animal. He has slept with Yoda for the past 12 months, but Yoda was ousted from his bed that night in favor of Sully.

The weather has been REALLY nice the past few days. I ran for 3.5 miles early on Wednesday morning before Paul went to work. Paul wasn't feeling well on Thursday, so I was able to run 5.5 miles that afternoon while Oliver and Paul napped. I didn't have time to run on Christmas Day or today, but the weather was really nice both of those days so had there been time I would have done so! Today it was in the 70's, and we went ice skating which seemed like an odd combination. I didn't get as much exercise when I run, but I did get some exercise. Some people may dream of a white Christmas, but I honestly would love a 60 or 70 degree Christmas every year. It felt strange to wear a short sleeve (sparkly black and red) top to the Christmas Eve service without a jacket I was a little leery about having the three kids in the service by myself, but they did pretty well. None of our four candles caused anything to catch on fire, so I viewed that as a success! A man sitting behind us commented afterward to Nadia how much he enjoyed hearing her sing the Christmas carols. That was music to this Momma's ears, and I have to say that was my favorite part of the service as well (hearing her sing). I was assuming the candles would only be lit for one song (Silent Night) but we had them lit for more than one song. It was very beautiful seeing more than 1,000 candles shining at once around the auditorium. The place was totally PACKED. It was above full capacity. There were two candlelight services. I had assumed the 7;00 service would be the more popular one, but maybe I was wrong because the 5:00 one was totally full.

On Christmas Day (our 2nd day of Christmas) after breakfast we drove to Paul's parents' house. We opened more presents (from Paul's parents and Paul's brother) and had a delicious meal, and then we drove to Maryland. It was the first time that Paul's grandmother didn't join us to celebrate Christmas.  Oliver during part of our drive. We weren't sure when Wendy and her family would arrive because their van broke down in Indiana, but one of our cousins helped them out, and they were able to rent a vehicle and get back on the road about six hours after theirs broke down at a toll booth. Thankfully they arrived at my parents' house at 4:00 am on December 26. Yesterday we had our third and final day of exchanged presents as we opened up gifts from my parents, my three siblings, and my Aunt Janet. I only see Wendy and her family once a year so we are soaking up the time that we have together. Grace (who is 2 1/2) didn't remember me. This is a disadvantage of only being able to get together once a year. The tooth fairy was busy here last night because Susie lost a molar and Nadia lost her seventh tooth (another one on the top). This is the third year in a row that Nadia has lost at least one tooth at Grandma's house around Christmas! Bowling is on the agenda for tomorrow morning, and a few members of the family are planning to see the new Star Wars movie at the theatre tomorrow afternoon. We are greatly enjoying the time spent with family as we celebrate Christ's birth!