We began our Christmas celebration by attending a Christmas Eve church service. Given the two wee ones we chose a 4:00 family service that included a Christmas pageant. We walked into the church and Oliver, rather loudly, asked "What is this place?" (Clearly we are not regulars.) He followed this up by singing, very loudly, "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum," (from the book Hand, Hand, Finger Thumb) every time he heard the drum played (part of the pageant). To the relief of many, we ducked out during communion.On the way home we took a trek through a neighborhood that was decked out in holiday lights. We thought Oliver would be awestruck. Not so, the little man took one look and said, "Let's go to CVS and buy candy canes."
Back at home we had lobsters. After we patiently and painfully explained the life cycle of the lobster and how lobster traps work (and I considered vegetarianism) we managed to get Oliver to sleep - actually much easier than I had imagined given that the guy in the red suit would soon be arriving.
It turns out, we were all good little boys and girls this year and Santa did make a stop at our house - putting presents under the tree and filling the stockings (made by Davis, of course).
It was fun watching Oliver this year. He came down and was so happy to find presents under the tree. He opened one and began to play - he never even considered that the other presents under the tree could be for him as well. Once he caught on, he was quite excited- however, he wanted to play with each and every present before moving on to opening the next. Favorites included train stuff and his rocket. Knowing that Oliver would likely want someone to play rockets with him, Santa made me a rocket too (no wonder Santa spent so much time in his workshop - I had thought it was just an escape from the chaos).
Henrietta slept through much of Christmas, but did spend a bit of time awake - happy and smiling.
Happy Hollow Days!
Your foray into Christmas Eve church-going sounds a lot like ours. Lots of "what is this? why do people go here?" questions from little boy #1 and then loud choruses of "Like a lightbulb!" (from Rudolph) from little boy #2. And lots of stares from the rest of the congregation. Great pictures - happy hollow days to you all!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed you even attempted church. My Mom asked and I decided a 5 pm service was a recipe for disaster so we bailed on it ... maybe next year! :-) Looks like a great holiday though - Merry Xmas!
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