Christmas Eve

Today was busier than I had anticipated!  But, I realized that the cut-out sugar cookies were still in lump of dough form in the refrigerator.  That would NOT do for Santa tonight, so I set to getting the cookies finished with a few little helpers...

We had fun and got it done!  I rolled, the kids cut, I frosted and the girls sprinkled.  Fun and done.

We attended a family mass at 5:30 (instead of waiting and going at midnight or in the morning!). It was quite nice.  As the gospel was read of the nativity story, there were several children dressed in costumes as Mary, Joseph, shepherds, angels, etc and they did a small act it out scene.  It was cute and out kids loved it.  Then all the children were invited to the for their own special children's homily.  It was very special and the kids loved it.

On our way home, the kids were talking about how excited they were that Santa would have arrived when we got home.  (Last year, Santa dropped off presents, filled stockings and ate a cookie or two while we were at mass.  So, they were sure that Oregon is FIRST on Santa's schedule.  I warned them that Santa's schedule is likely to change annually so that no one area gets all their presents first every year.  It didn't matter.  They were still SURE.)  When we arrived home, they first checked the bowl of carrots that they had left on the front porch for the reindeer.  They found the bowl still full.  They looked inside and saw that there were no new presents under the tree, and the stockings were empty.  I was putting something away in the garage when I heard this wail...  Branch came running out to the garage with tears rolling down her cheeks.  "{Bark} ate Santa's cookies."  What?!?  Huh?!?  What?

  

Yes, it appeared that the cookies were gone and 'Bark' had her tail between her legs and was sort of looking guilty in the corner!  The cookie plate had been left near the edge of the table... and it was smellin' good! So, she helped herself to 3 cookies and 3 Hershey's kisses!  We straightened out the problem, washed the dish and filled it back up with cookies for Santa and put it in a safer place!

Then we all sat around the table enjoying hot chocolate and enjoying all the cookies.

Presents?  Well, I allowed JUST one, and I got to pick!! 

 

They got their new pjs that I was working my tail off to complete in time!!  Just by the skin of my teeth did I get these pjs made and wrapped up!

Next was off to bed to sleep and wait for Santa to arrive with presents for us to open in the morning.