It was not until our church service last night that I could sincerely wish anyone a merry Christmas. For some unknown reason I just wasn't feeling it this year. I felt guilty for not being in the Christmas spirit. After all, I have several friends who have had difficult situations and experienced big life changing, some even tragic, events this past year and yet I was the one being a bit of a scrooge.
I still cannot tell you why I haven't felt very Christmas-y this year but being at our church's Christmas Eve service helped turn it around for me. I love being in church on Christmas Eve - it's a beautiful service and feels so warm and peaceful.
After church we did our annual tradition of a Christmas light cruise followed by opening one present once we got home. The girls got new pajamas which they loved! Their dinner (we had had various appetizers and finger foods before church) consisted of cinnamon apples, cookies, and warm apple cider.
I remember always waking up especially early on Christmas morning, just bursting with excitement to discover what Santa had left us. My expectations of the girls doing the same thing were squashed. We finally heard Gabby climb down from her loft bed around 7:00 this morning. She climbed in bed with us, asking when we could finally wake her sister. While Ed was in Samantha's room around 7:30 to wake her, Gabby confessed she had already been up once during the night and had a preview of Santa's loot. I'll admit, I was quite disappointed and sad at the confession. It is their first expressions of surprise and excitement where I get my joy and I felt kind of robbed of that. Plus it was just another of many recent reminders just how quickly my girls are growing up (Gabby styled her own hair today as well as changed her earrings on her own for the first time). When I saw my disappointment and sadness was causing Gabby to be upset I had to get over it and tell her it was okay. I'm sure I did it more than once myself growing up.
The girls were super excited with their gifts - the ones from Santa and the ones from us and each other. We had a low key morning, hanging in our pajamas, eating cinnamon rolls, playing with all the new stuff. We decided to check out a matinee after lunch, the new Disney movie Frozen. I had planned to take the girls one day this week while I was off work and they were out for school but it was nice to go when Ed could also go with us. Frozen was a really cute and funny movie, maybe one of my favorite Disney princess movies.
And now it is nearing bedtime on Christmas night. I am not certain what the next few days hold for us. Ed will return to work tomorrow. I'm off the rest of the week - well off from being at the office, I'll be working some from home. I am hoping to get the girls' rooms straightened up some, finding new homes and organization for the new toys. I have not done much cooking or baking lately and would love to do some baking with the girls. For the most part I am going to play it by ear, having some fun, relaxing and enjoying our time together - knowing the next few days pass far quicker than I would like.
