'Twas the Night Before

On our Christmas Eve here at home we make fresh cookies and cocoa for Santa and sparkly oatmeal food for his reindeer. {Essentially just scooping Quaker oatmeal into baggies and mixing in our favorite shades of glitter}. We do this so that the food will glisten in the moonlight and Santa's reindeer will know to stop at our house first. You know how Buby loves to be first.


By the way, our four year old is beginning to understand that we celebrate Christmas a few days early. He's wised up to the calendar. Though we love being out of town and with our extended families the week of Christmas, My Sweets and I very much want our children to grow up with Christmas Day traditions and memories at home, too. Basically we want it both ways. So we decided that regardless of what date is on the calendar, we celebrate our Christmas Eve two days before we travel. Whenever that happens to be. Family calls to wish us a wonderful day. We totally live it up.


Celebrating under our own tree with just our family of four... that is sacred to us. This year we did Christmas Eve on Saturday, December 19th and Christmas Day on the 20th. Monday morning the 21st we hit the road. Once in Family Land, where both My Sweets and I grew up, we pack five big parties into four little days. Bleu thinks Christmas is a week-long affair. It's happy and awesome and chaotic and exhausting. I don't think we would change a thing.


As far as Buby knows, Santa makes a list of families who travel for the holidays and bumps them to the top of his delivery schedule. Any presents from Santa come to our house. On our Christmas morning there are gifts from us {books and clothes} and gifts from Santa {more toyish assortment} wrapped in unique paper with different labels and everything. Any gifts the wee ones receive while in Family Land come from family.


Our Christmas Eve this year was full of fun. We had just returned home from The Nutcracker and eating out. It was blistery cold, and Bleu girl didn't want to head back out to spread the reindeer food. Buby and I did the honors.


Tom and I tucked the kids into bed and then stayed up until 3:45 a.m. assembling things. He put together the play kitchen and drum set from Grandpa J. and then tackled the Dino World monstrosity from Santa. {We unfortunately don't have a basement or off-limits room to assemble early and hide these things in.}