Christmas 2009 was, in a word, fabulous.  It was pretty much everything I wanted it to be.  Leading up to Christmas, we has an Advent calendar routine every night where we’d use a book and calendar set that’s been in use since I was very young.  The book follows the journey of Mary and Joseph of course, but also the Wise Men starting with the dark times in the Old Testament and Isaiah’s prophecies.  It has a matching calendar, and even though the little doors struggle to stay open these days, and the edges are looking rather worn, the book and calendar are an integral part of preparing for Christmas.  I love sharing that with my family.  We also have a second calendar that’s a pop-up so we opened a door on it each night too, and sang “Light the Advent Candle.”

As part of Christmas preparations we got a tree (a real one), and set up the rest of the Christmas decorations in the house.  To me, the preparations for Christmas are almost as important as Christmas itself.  Naturally the kids were excited about Santa coming, but they were excited about learning the real meaning of Christmas too.

Julia has loved Santa since last year, and this year was no different.  She had no problem sitting on Santa’s knee at both Jose’s and my kids’ Christmas parties at work, and even gave the first Santa a kiss, which Jose managed to capture beautifully on camera.

Christmas Eve arrived, and we ate tourtiere as per my family’s tradition.  For the first time ever, I made my own tourtiere!  More importantly, it tasted like tourtiere!  Christmas Eve is always a little rushed as the service at St. Augustine’s starts at 7:00, and it’s always packed so we have to get there in good time to get a seat.  I love the Christmas Eve service.  It’s just beautiful.  The only problem is that it doesn’t end until 9:00 or so, and we have a lot of little traditions to complete before the kids go to bed.  First, the Christmas jammies are opened and put on.  The stockings come next followed by setting out cookies and milk for Santa.  The last calendar doors are opened, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas is read, and the kids finally find their way to bed.  Then Jose and I set up the stockings and hang out for a bit before finding our own visions of sugarplums.  This year was a little different in that after the final preparations for Christmas morning, I went back to church for the late service.  I am part of the hand bell choir and we were playing at that service.  As late as it was, I enjoyed the service.  We had different music for the most part, and we played well too which was the icing on the cake.

I think I need to leave off here for now.  I’ve been tormented with migraines this week, and need to keep them at bay by getting a good night’s sleep.

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