Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind around here:

• Lucy and I went to see the water-skiing Santa and his reindeer at National Harbor. Her favorite was the Grinch on a jet ski. She giggled and laughed the whole time. On the way back to the car she decided she was cold. Very cold. This abruptly developed into a tantrum that lasted a good 25 minutes. We were only about 30 seconds from the car. Had she decided not to throw the tantrum she could have been warm and snug about 25 minutes earlier. I was hoping for a happier rest of the day.
• We ate dinner and dashed to evening church. We walk in and actually recieved compliments as to how well Harper was sitting waiting for the service to start. Needless to say, that was over the second the minister began to speak. She spent the remainder of the time trying to find a way out of the pew. She tried under, over, through people, weaving in and out of legs and feet. She was removed by Ian for a little while. During that time Graham charmed the pants off of the little old ladies sitting near us. Lucy surprised us both by promptly getting up and heading to the front of church all by herself for the children's sermon- a first since she is usually too shy to go by herself. She was pretty proud that she had done it by herself and that Santa was there to witness. The service ended with a candlelit sing along to "Silent Night". The girls loved seeing all the candles and the flickering light. Once the song was over Harper requested "Baa Baa Black Sheep" from the congregation, same as she does at night before bed.
• After church we had a frenzy of Santa preparations- tracking him via NORAD, sprinkling reindeer food outside, leaving cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and singing "Silent Night".
• One more check on the Santa tracker and Lucy was convinced that he would be nearing our home soon, she went to sleep asap and convinced Harper to do the same. Graham obliged as well and we didn't see him until Lucy woke everybody up sometime after 7am Christmas morning.

Besides the one tantrum, all were good and Santa rewarded them lavishly in the morning.