Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was simply wonderful. Justin had the day off from work. The kids and parents needed to get out of the house for a while. The roads were pretty dry so we headed to Sterling just in time for lunch at our favorite restaurant, Santiago's for pork carnitas. Yum. Then we went to Walmart. Yes, we are exciting and took all kids to Walmart. Justin decided to update his eye prescription because he lost his sunglasses and needs a new pair. While he was engaged in that the kids and I did a little shopping. I got new bath towels to replace our stinky ones. The kids each got a special toy from the money Grandpa and Grandma Call sent them. Amelia chose a puppy called Candy (a zoomer puppy), Everett chose a puppy as well, and Phillip chose 3 Imaginex spaceships just in case Santa brought him the Super Nova Battle Rover. After that we drove back home.

I hurriedly started the sourdough bread with a starter I maintained for 2 weeks. The bread smelled delish as I let it raise. While the bread did its magic. I had a super quick photo session with a family whose son and brother were visiting for the holidays for the first time in years. The bread was taking much longer than anticipated so the kids decorated a gingerbread house while I worked on shaping dough. Justin helped each kid decorate their name initial on the roof. Justin helped me prep the clam chowder by frying up bacon, and cutting onions and potatoes. Our neighbor, Kelly and her son Zane came over to join in our evening. The bread smelled heavenly. Together we made the best clam chowder ever. It was not too thick or thin, the bacon crispy, and the spices perfect! Only took us 10 years to make the best chowder ever! Yum. Kelly was duly impressed with the chowder and bread. Everett ate three slices of bread, rather the soft bread middles and left the crusts lonely. Amelia ate her soup! After dinner the kids wanted to do another round of the Nativity! Justin volunteered to be the donkey. He looked like a real a$$. He he. Zane volunteered to be baby Jesus. Amelia was in heaven with a real baby around. Ynnej knocked on the windows and rang the doorbell right after Kelly left. She left a bag filled with gifts and some candy. The kids tore into the packages to find the expected PJs. Soon all the kids were PJ'd up and chowing down candy. Amelia got a real kick this year out of the Santa tracking app on Justin's phone. Amelia left some chocolate milk for Rudolph since he whined about wanting some last year. We read some books then got the kids in bed. Phillip was so excited he did not fall asleep until almost 9:45.

Santa enjoyed the smaller pile of gifts this year. It only took an hour to arrange everything and get the magic spread around the living room. I pinned a blanket to the hallway and hall closet door to keep little curious people (Phillip) from wandering down the hall during the night. I was sure, almost 100% that the kids would get up at 4 am. Thus I spent a restless night in fear of missing an errant wandering child. The kids did not wake up until 7:30! Dang! I remember getting up at 3 and 4 and 5 in the morning.