VanderMeander

Christmas Eve. The one day of the year where I try to go overboard on the eye make-up, going for the “smokey eye”, and you still can hardly tell I’m wearing eye make-up. We’ve had our supper (taking major precautions so the kids would not spill spaghetti on their Christmas clothes– unfortunately we forgot about “spaghetti-face”). The kids each opened up their present from Marc and I. They’re very happy. We head out to Gateway’s Christmas Eve service in a little while. I get to sing a song with Janet. Then it’s home to put the kids to bed, and listen to A Prairie Home Christmas with my parents. In the morning my brother and his family come over for the morning before heading off to Saskatoon. We will eat turkey, play games, maybe a little cross-country skiing, visit my grandparents’ grave, and think about friends and family far away. Merry Christmas to you all from the Vanderfamily!


10:21pm update: And now we’re home from the Christmas Eve service, the (very excited) kids are tucked in for the night, breakfast is in the fridge, and we’ve got some shrimp cream cheese dip happening. Three things stick out for me with the kids from tonight’s service.

#1: Madeline having something apparently stuck in her nose all night as she spent a good portion of the night digging for it. But she also belted out every single verse of every single Christmas carol, except Silent Night because she was nervous about her candle tipping.

#2: Olivia trying out every candy from her treat bag but not liking any of it and giving the wet candy back to me. She also peeled her Christmas orange herself, passed me each peel, and then stuck it on her finger proudly.

#3: Luke saying every song was his “favourite, too! I love it so, so much!” And when he heard the pastor say “We can all be transformed”, he whispered quite loudly, “Mommy how can we be transformed?!” and then did his best Transformer sound and robot arms.

Filed under: Family by Dixie Vandersluys