Yearn for Surrender: Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

I love Christmas traditions. If you have been following the blog this month, or specifically in the last week, you know that there are several things we do throughout December each year. While each tradition is special, I look most forward to the traditions that happen on Christmas Eve.

I LOVE our Christmas Eve meal with Charissa and her family. I grew up eating Norwegian meatballs each year for Christmas Eve. They smell like Christmas in my oven! To create a big feast meal takes work. This is work I so deeply enjoy. Cooking is so therapeutic for me. There is something so sacred about the hours I spend preparing for this meal. They are a time of Christmas music, Christmas smells, and Christmas prayers. So lovely. This year my little sidekick simply couldn't sleep without me and stayed up with me until 10:35 preparing for Christmas Eve. He enjoyed being a part of it and I was able to relax quite a bit even with his presence.

When I added things up, I figured that I spent about eight hours prepping the meal. That is a lot of time, but it truly is a joy-filled tradition and I treasure it. So you might be wondering, what food we end up with after all that work. Besides the Norwegian meatballs and gravy we have: mashed potatoes, creamy sweet corn prepared and frozen by my grandma and dad, "Best Sweet Potatoes... Ever" (the title for the recipe in the church cook book I use, and accurate), strawberry/avocado/spinach salad, a watermelon, a fruit and berry tray, pickles and olives, and apple pie and apple crisp for dessert. Everything is freshly made and Shelly Safe except the apple pie which is a local fundraiser pie and I am told is very tasty.

The meatballs are a hit every year. I am going to remember to double my already increased recipe for next year. J and A both love them as well so there are now many meatball eaters!

Ready to eat!

T: Do you want me to feed you A?

T: Great bite A!

After our noon meal T went down for a nap, Brandon and our guests headed to church to play/nap/prep for the services, M watched a movie, I cleaned things up and got things ready for the services. We have two services each year. There is childcare for the first service so I get to attend one service without the kids. It is quite a special treat. After the first service we head home for a quick snack and then back to church for the second service. The kids stay for that service and they seem to really enjoy it. T loves to sing the carols. The services were incredible as always. It is so lovely and even magical feeling to be with our church family on Christmas Eve. We are so very blessed to be a part of such an special community. Over 400 people came to celebrate Jesus' Birth with us on Christmas Eve!

What a beautiful crew!

Two families... five busy kids!

M: I love L and J!

After the second service we came home and had the kids eat a bit more before heading to bed. Every year at this time my body feels like it just won't go any more. All the prep work and late nights catch up with me and I just want to go to bed. Every year I resist and remember that Christmas morning will come and I need to be ready for it! After eating way too much I prepped the stockings and got all the gifts out of hiding. Yes, we don't have any presents under our tree until Christmas morning. The kids each got one big sized gift that needed to be wrapped on site as well. Once all the gifts were in place I prepped a crockpot oatmeal banana bread and an egg bake and headed to bed.

Christ the Savior is Born! Merry Christmas!

M woke up at 12:12am and went to the bathroom. I am quite sure he didn't register the day and went back to sleep quickly. Whew! He woke up for good at 5:19 which I think is a record for him. He helped me prep some things in the kitchen and we waited for T to wake up. She woke up shortly before 7:00. M was so excited to hear her stirring!

We had the kids pause and smile so we could get a pre-present photo.

M and T: Can we PLEASE come in now?

Then we released them to go to their stockings. They always to stockings first, but you can tell from the photo they caught a glimpse of their gifts as well.

The magical glow of children's faces on Christmas morning.

M: Yes! A new football! T: YES!!!!!! Princess shoes!

M: I am ready to play catch Dad!

T: I love my new princess shoes. I needed to change outfits so I could match my new shoes and headband.

Each year I try to do the four gifts with the "want, need, wear, read" categories. The kids also get many gifts in their stockings and gifts from church friends as well. This year their "want" gifts were very unique. They were mind-blowing amazing gifts that were essentially given to us by special people in our lives. My huddle (small group) buddies are both moms of kids older than our kids. Their kids were ready to pass along some special toys and were able to gift them to our kids on Christmas morning. T's big box contained 25 Barbies, 3 Barbie horses, and lots of clothes and accessories. M's big box contained many sets of Rokenbok construction stuff. We are so blessed by such generous friends and our kids had a hugely exciting Christmas because of their generosity.

M and T: Can we please start opening gifts now?

T: This dress is totally my style!

M and T: We love our super hero "wear" gifts.

The kids decided to keep their new superhero costumes on for several hours. Yes, they even wore them to church! If you are keeping track, this is T third documented outfit of the day.

M: Hmmm, what could be in here?

three seconds later...

M: I just had to run to mommy and give her a hug. I was so excited that I really had Rokenbok!

M: Look at all this Rokenbok!

T: I LOVED all my new Barbie stuff!

T: Can you believe I got ALL this Barbie stuff?

After we opened presents we went into the kitchen so Brandon could begin setting up the Rokenbok stuff. I was prepping breakfast and tiptoeing through a maze each time I went to the table.

M: This is so cool. Keep building Daddy. T: I want to try... and keep eating my Kettle Corn.

We needed to take a break to get a bite to eat. The banana bread crockpot thing smelled good, but didn't taste too great. Bummer. The egg bake was amazing as always.

Our tasty Christmas morning breakfast.

After breakfast Brandon and I took turns getting ready for church. It was a bit tricky to have a service on Christmas morning, but we only had one service at 10:30 so we had plenty of time to get ready. The service went well and everyone loved the kids clothing choices. I was so thankful that our sweet and amazing Jamie was able to join us for church. To have all my "kids" with me in church fills my heart with joy. Jamie was even able to come back to our house and play Rockenbok with us for a bit. What a special memory!

M: The machine actually sorts the balls. Amazing.

M: I think Jamie wants one of these.

I must admit, they are quite fun to play with!

M: Daddy had to do a lot of set up!

The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys, packing for our Missouri road trip and eating leftovers. I also washed several loads of clothes and prepped meals for the travel day. It felt like a lot of work for a holiday, but worth it the following morning.