The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

Those last few days before Christmas just flew by!  We made a brief appearance at our neighbor's annual Solstice Party and I managed to stand around chatting with people.  Somehow I was hovering over a bucket of cold drinks, so I felt like I was policing everyone's alcohol/calorie intake-- I was not!  I don't care what you're drinking!  (Especially since no one was driving home!)  My middle name should have been "Awkward."  

On Saturday we joined the Sellers as they did the temple work for Akston.  It was really sweet of them to include us in such a special occasion.  We had originally been planning on driving up to the Kennedy Center that evening for the Messiah Sing-Along, but after tying ourselves in knots trying to figure out how we could do both (which SHOULD have been possible, but was made even more difficult by the fact that Bentley was working until 2:30), we finally were forced to conclude that we couldn't realistically do both, especially once you factor in DC traffic during the holidays.  I sat on it for another day or two, just in case there was some magic solution I just wasn't seeing, and then in the evening it suddenly washed over me that for this year, going to the temple was infinitely more important.  The Sing-Along will happen next year.  But this would only happen once.  And I felt so much peace once I understood that.  And it was a wonderful experience and I was so glad we could be there for our friends.

After our lovely time at the temple, Craig suddenly panicked in the afternoon that we needed goodie plates to give to people at church because if we were given treats (which seemed likely), we'd feel terrible if we didn't reciprocate.  Cue Craig's Second Baking Extravaganza!

The kids lining up to dip Oreo truffles in candy coating

He finished the truffles he'd started and also made his salted caramel Rice Krispie treats and another round of spritz cookies (with a lot of help from Kendra!).  I'd made peppermint marshmallow fudge, and the gingerbread cookies we'd made with the YW and YM were still chewy, et voilà! we had goodie plates to give out!  We stayed up way too late as I cleaned up the kitchen and Craig plated everything and wrapped them in saran wrap.  

Sunday was the really big day as far as I was concerned.  It's taken me a long time to admit it to myself, but I honestly love Christmas Eve even more than Christmas.  (Am I allowed to say that?)

We got up a bit early so I could make the turkey brine before we headed to church.  We loaded up all those plates of cookies and I even remembered to grab bread for the sacrament!  Kendra drove us all, and church itself was lovely!  Lots of music, which is exactly how a Christmas program should be.  And since we only had the first hour, everyone got to hang out and visit (and swap cookies).  I think we gave out 19 plates.  Whew!

Once we were home I even had time for a nap before the Smiths arrived.  Then it was back to work in the kitchen: we churned out mashed potatoes, Grandma's jell-o salad, faux-pecan pie, and apple crisp.  And I slipped away to wrap a few more odds and ends.  In the middle of that, we put our take-and-bake pizzas in the oven and the sister missionaries joined us for dinner and the singing of Christmas carols-- having them there made it more fun.  (Which was nice.  Usually I don't like to have extra people for this stuff, but the night before it had occurred to me that they would be fun to have around, so when it turned out no one had invited them for dinner that evening, we were happy to volunteer!)  Once we were done singing we shooed them out the door and headed out ourselves to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  We went past what used to be the tacky house and is now actually quite lovely (lots of lights, very few blow-up features), we drove out to a rich farm in Keswick where they have a free drive-through lit up situation (how awesome to have so much money and do something so nice with it!), and then Kendra said there was a cool house near CATEC that we should check out so we ventured that-a-way:

She was not wrong!  I think we stayed for 15 or 20 minutes enjoying each song that they played on their very own radio station.  At one point I glanced behind me and realized that Craig was absolutely mesmerized.

He wasn't even blinking he was so enthralled

Some day when we're rich, we'll do that, too, Craig.  Somehow.

Finally it was time to head home.  We read Luke 2 and Matthew 2 (the pertinent verses, anyway), and watched the church's nativity movie, which I find to be one of the best I've ever seen.  I love almost everything depicting the nativity-- I just think it's one of the loveliest stories ever told.  But this one is particularly well done.  (And a lot more accurate, as far as I can tell!)  And then finally, finally, we let the kids open up their Christmas jammies!

I really like this year's pajamas!  If you can't see the shirts clearly, they feature a moose with Christmas lights tangled in his antlers and say "Alaska" which seemed very appropriate for this year!  (Keeping track of whose is whose is going to be a nightmare, though, so I'm going to pay for all the matchingness!)

At some point Bentley took weird pictures with Craig's phone...

Then it was off to bed for everyone!  Bentley and Kendra surprised me by deciding to also go to bed (but I wasn't going to complain about that).  And when they all woke up in the morning, they were greeted with this lovely sight...

Ah, Christmas!