Christmas Eve Recap

A lot of disjointed posts today. The house is getting cleaner and more organized, and so is my computer; 2008 will start out right!

This post, in and of itself, and notwithstanding these first two introductory paragraphs, will not be entirely disjointed since its sole purpose is to recap our Christmas Eve celebration, it's just that everything I've posted here today has been out of order, and this follows that pattern. But, who cares. It's still 2007; I can be organized and logical in 2008.

Christmas Eve kicked off our Christmas festivities. Dad, Diana and Alex (QV) joined us here for an early afternoon feast of roasted beef tenderloin, Mrs. Butland's potatoes, Pioneer Woman dinner rolls, glazed carrots with pecans and grapes, fresh green beans tossed with fresh garlic and tarragon and a tossed green salad.

Here's the table before the meal...


and during.


A five o'clock church service beckoned us after our meal and, with the children's assistance (Hank as a sheep and Madeleine as a reader) we celebrated the birth of our lord.

Here are the two older children in the church basement, readying themselves for their awaiting performance, Madeleine pensive and nervous, Hank excited and brimming with naughtiness with the prospect of sitting through the entire service relatively unsupervised.

Of course, all goes off without a hitch. Well, relatively. During the service a quick thinking parishioner near Hank snatched his bell when it hit the floor after he'd spent half the service serenading the congregation. When asked later how, if he wasn't playing with his bell that it managed to hit the floor Hank, ever the master of quick explanations, was stumped.

After, all head to our house for eggnog, punch and cookies.


And, for the three children, a Christmas Eve gift of...

fleece pajamas; blue with a white polar bear for Hank and light and dark purple stripes for the girls.

Shortly after the kids are anxious to get to bed so that Santa is sure to stop and the evening, full of excitement in its own right, but also brimming with anticipation, comes to a close as guest say good-bye and children say good-night.