Christmas Eve!

Jennie, David and I were selected to play the roles of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus in the Christmas Eve program at church.  After all the applicants and the months of auditions and call backs, it was truly a miracle we were selected.  I felt as if I had just made the top 12 on American Idol.  Everything pretty much went as I suspected.  David did fine, kids crowded a little too close around, some of them touched him a little too much and it was basically over before you could blink.  It seems silly to rehearse 4 nights a week for 3 weeks only to be up there 5-10 minutes but what do I know. You can also imagine our disappointment when we found out there was no cast party afterwards.  I guess everyone had other obligations.

As is tradition, the whole fam gathered at Gigi's house for our annual smorgasbord of food and presents.  However, going against tradition, there were a few changes this year.  

We all decided several months back to pick names and buy gifts for one person instead of all buying gifts for everyone.  There would also be a limit as to what each person could spend on the person they drew.  This of course only applies to the adults.  The three boys will still be showered with gifts.  The second change was a little more drastic.  In fact, it was so drastic that I am surprised there wasn't an earthquake or flying pigs or the like.  This year, Gigi allowed us to open presents before

 dinner!!!!

The theory was, maybe if we open before dinner, the kids will actually eat dinner instead of sitting at the table asking when we get to open presents.  By kids, I mean not only Tucker, but Jennie and Kathy too :).  Anyway, for those of you who have read this and are thinking, "that's a great idea.  We should try that next year".  Forget about it.  They might have eaten less.  Now its not the distraction of the gifts to open, its the distraction of gifts they have already opened.  Look, kids are just not going to eat on Christmas.  There...I said it!!

Other than the kids not eating, the night was a success.  I have not polled all attendees yet to see what everyone thought of the drawing of the names, so I have no report on that. 

 I am sure you are all very disappointed.  Everyone got what they wanted, ate what they wanted and headed home around 9:00pm to get to bed and wait for Santa.  

Before we put the kids to bed, I wanted to start a tradition this year of reading them Twas the Night Before Christmas.  I put the two older boys in my lap (David was already asleep) and started to read.  You know Houston is really tired when he will sit still for an entire book, which he did.  Tucker on the other hand, was so concerned about getting to bed before Santa got there that after I read about 4 pages, he said, "can I just go to bed already?  I don't want to read this any more".  We managed to finish it and get everyone to bed after putting cookies and milk out for Santa and some reindeer food out on the front porch for the reindeer.

Stay tuned to see if he came to see us or not.