The Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Well, actually, there's still a lot of action in the Clark household.  Lilly and Jack are sound asleep, while Santa is hard at work putting together a toy kitchen and wrapping presents.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve!  This is the first Christmas where Lilly is really excited for Santa to come.  She keeps adding things to the list of things she's asking Santa for.  They tend to be something she wants in the moment but is not allowed to have.  For example, when I was using my earpiece in the car to talk on the phone the other day, Lilly informed me that she was asking Santa for an earpiece.  When she's not allowed to touch things on the stove because they're hot, she tells us that she's going to ask Santa for her own stove.  Today, she added a trumpet to the list (which we really hope Santa doesn't bring--our house is noisy enough as it is).  Over the months, she has delegated presents to certain people.  For example, she asked Edward for a kitchen.  Edward was unaware there were toy kitchens, so the poor guy felt he was a bit in over his head, as you can see here.  She asked Joef for a horse, at my suggestion. Phew, we're off the hook for some big ticket items.  Lilly is still dying for a bike, but we're waiting until the weather is nice enough for her to be outside on a bike. We're saving that one for her birthday.  So, the kitchen it is!  And I have a feeling, at the end of the day, Uncle Edward is going to get a ridiculous amount of credit for this kitchen.

Here, in a nutshell, is how we spent the day before Christmas.  

Jack fell asleep in the middle of the living room floor this morning, amidst music playing, Lilly singing and dancing and Jim vacuuming.  Ahhhh, the life of a second child.

Then, work began on the gingerbread house.

Lilly put on her apron, gave Jim an apron and the two of them got to work.  Well, Jim got to work and Lilly tried to eat all the icing.

Someone (I'm not going to name names), started getting a bit frustrated.  His helper was eating icing, asking questions, and eating more icing.  And the so called icing that was supposed to hold up the house wasn't really doing it's job, causing the house to collapse every few minutes.   

But, at the end of the day, there was indeed a gingerbread house, and Lilly was proud.

Even if the icing was too runny and all the decorations kept sliding off the house.

It's a pretty cute first gingerbread house.  Not edible, but cute.

Jack spent the day doing what he does best--lying on his back and kicking, sleeping, and showing off his adorable little smile.

 Lilly helped give Jack a bottle this evening.  I get nervous when we go a few days without giving Jack a bottle that he'll start to reject it, and he can't reject bottles because I'm off teaching my SAT class on Sunday mornings.  Well, so far, my fears are unfounded.  It's been almost a week since Jack had a bottle and like usual, he tries to drink it so fast that he has to take forced breaks every minute.  He's a good little eater.  Lilly was thrilled to help feed him today!

Then, after our dinner of ribs, corn, baked beans and macaroni and cheese (it was delicious...we're thinking of making it a Christmas Eve tradition!), it was bedtime.  But first, Lilly put cookies and milk out for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.  She was very specific with what she wanted.  2 cookies for Santa (she must be concerned about his waistline) and 4 carrots for the reindeer.  I guess they can fight it out.

That's where we are now.  One very excited two year old, a two month old who doesn't yet know the excitement that Christmas will bring him in the years ahead, and two tired parents who can't wait to see their little one's reaction on Christmas morning.  

I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out out sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!"