The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I sat down almost two weeks ago to recap what had been a fantastic month so far.  Ellie's visit from Guatemala, Thanksgiving in Villanova, Mum and Dad visiting from Singapore, Jim and my trip to Newport and Jim's vacation from work.  Then, without warning the flu struck the Clark family, and yesterday was the first day that we are all (almost) back to normal.  All in all, it took about 10 days to run its course--and it was a long 10 days.  But today, on Christmas Eve, I'm not going to write about flu.  It's too special a day.  Here we are this time last year.  And I can't even begin to imagine what next Christmas will bring.

29 weeks!

Our house is alive today!  The usual happy energy has been restored--with a little help from Uncle Joef who is in Fairfield for Christmas.  Lilly was excited to put her second to last cotton ball on Santa's beard and have her last chocolate from her Mr. Men Advent Calendar that was a special present from Gigi and Papa.

Lilly has one book left to open--we had 25 books to countdown to Christmas this year and it was a fun tradition that we will continue.

Our Christmas Tree is sparking with lights and ornaments and smells wonderful--nothing says Christmas like cutting down our own tree!  We went to a local tree farm this year and wandered around, picked our perfect tree and 'helped' Jim cut it down.  It's been almost three weeks since we brought our tree home and it hasn't started dropping pine needles yet!  Truly and amazing feat and one worthy of cutting down our own tree every year.  I didn't know how Jack and a Christmas Tree would go together, seeing as he loves touching and pulling and throwing things.  Just as Lilly did when she was little, he was intrigued by it for the first few days.  He pulled off a few ornaments around the bottom and then would try and put them back on the tree by holding the ornament up to where he pulled it off.  Now, he'll stop and ring some of the bells or touch a sparkly start, but for the most part, he leaves the tree alone.

We have our wall of Christmas cards from friends and family that always make us stop and smile.  The ones closer to the ground have the unique role of being carried around by Jack.  His favorite is one with the family dog on the front, which he pulls off the wall every time he passes by and walks around laughing and woofing at the card.

We have Lilly's gingerbread houses livening up the kitchen counter.  One of the houses, Lilly made with Jim, and the two of them seemed to have more success than last year.  Lilly ate just as much of the icing as she did last time and probably half the candy pieces went straight to her stomach without even touching the gingerbread house.  But the creative sloping roof and lack of walls made the house sturdier this time and prevented the sliding walls that Jim and Lilly ran into last year.  The other gingerbread house was a school creation, and as Dad said, looks like it was built to withstand Hiroshima.

Lilly's Gingerbread House, created at school

Lilly and I baked cookies for Santa today.  Jim and Joseph cooked up a batch of ribs--we celebrated Christmas Eve Texas style tonight!  

 

Lilly set out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots and milk for the reindeer (at her request).  Lilly decided that the reindeer would probably like their carrots peeled, especially since she practiced carrot peeling at school, so she got to work.

"Noooo, Uncle Joef.  Santa doesn't want zucchini!"

I hope Santa and his reindeer are hungry!

The little ones are sound asleep and have been for hours, with one very excited three-year-old anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival, and a little one-year-old who hopes there's food among whatever else awaits him under the Christmas Tree.  

I can't wait for tomorrow morning!  There's something so special about seeing your children's eyes light up--it really is magical.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!