24th of December – finally twas the night before Christmas

After much excitement and preparation, Christmas Day is nearly here.

We are having a major cleaning/purging/chopping of vegetables this morning – involving as much of the family as possible.

As I am posting this earlier in the day, any photos I use to illustrate our Christmas Eve traditions will be using last years photos. Could not guarantee I will be up to blogging later this evening, and you will all probably be too busy to be reading blogs by then too.

For the first time in 17 years of marriage, my husband is on leave from work this Christmas Eve, so it feels like Christmas is starting early.

Tonight, as is our custom, we plan to take a walk around the local neigbourhood to see some of the Christmas lights decorating the houses.  Mostly it is white lights, and only a few have the large outdoor displays.  Lets just say some embrace the season more enthusiastically than others.

The kids get into their (usually new) pyjamas and we read some Christmas books, including Twas the Night Before Christmas and also a lovely book I was sent by a blogger last year called Three Trees.

We light all the advent candles on the Christmas Pyramid and sing some Christmas carols – to me this is one of the most special moments of Christmas, among all the excitement, presents and food, when we take time to reflect on what it should really be about.

We will get Santa’s snack ready – usually a glass of port, a mini-mince pie and of course a carrot for Rudolf – and leave it by the chimney with the stockings.

There is usually an appropriate Christmas movie to watch, served up with mugs of hot chocolate and the kids get to choose a small gift from under the tree to open, before heading to bed.

My husband attends Christmas Eve Communion at church while I sort out some last minute essentials.

So that is our traditional Christmas Eve, and I would love to hear how you spend yours.