twas the night before christmas

Yes, we did indeed celebrate Christmas, but lets just say from November until after Valentines Days it seems like its all a blur in our house. We start off with Thanksgiving, then our anniversary, then my birthday, then christmas, then new years, then 3 birthdays back to back (BIL, hubs & mom) and then finally valentines day. So please excuse me for the delay in a recap of all the wonderful holiday cheer that happened this past month.

We started off with Christmas Eve going to our childrens service at church at 5:00pm. I was scrambling to finish wrapping presents all day, and nearly almost missed going to church altogether as I didnt notice the time until 4pm. Somehow I managed to squeeze in a shower, dress Matthew in an adorable elf outfit my mother-in-law bought him, convince hubs to take a quick shower, pick up my mother (who was going with us), and make it on time for the service.

Now, I do admit, Matthews outfit was a lil over-the-top festive, but boy was it great to see all the smiles from the church members as we passed to the front to be seated. He had fallen asleep on the ride there, but as soon as he heard the childrens choir begin, he was all smiles. At one point it sounded as if he had joined in with the kids singing, to the point the pastor glanced our way with a large smile. Kinda ironic, considering my favorite part of christmas eve service is the fact that I get to sing off-key the entire time ;) Of course after the children had finished singing he went right back to being fully amused by the ever so large elf booties he was wearing. You see he thought it was a better idea to eat them opposed to wearing them.

We finished the service with my all time favorite tradition. The lights in the church were dimmed so low they were nearly off completely. A row of volunteers gathered at the front to light their candles. They walked throughout the church lighting others' who proceeded to do the same. The church was nothing but a glow of candle lights. And then softly you could hear, "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright......"  I turned to look at my husband, who was holding my son, and got the greatest sensation of overwhelming love I could ever feel. This was my family. These were the beginning of our traditions. And my face lit up even more when I saw the pure happiness my son expressed while staring at all the candles lit around him.

After the service we went back to my parents where we had a surprisingly low-key christmas eve dinner. It was just the five of us. My mom, dad, hubs, matthew and myself. We didnt spend long there, as it was past matthews bedtime. So my mother handed us a wrapped present and sent us on our way. I knew what the present was. I had been waiting for this moment for quite some time. Under that wrapping paper was Matthews very own "A Night Before Christmas" book. I remember my mother reading it to us every year, to the point where I could probably recite the entire thing without hesitation. I couldnt wait to read it to Matthew for the first time. I know he wont remember it or anything, but i surely will.

After I read it to him and tucked him into his crib for the night, hubs and I had some last minute wrapping to finish.  Stockings to hang and presents to rearrange under the tree. Plus a couple of our friends were going to stop by too. One of hubs good friends recently got married to a girl who I absolutely love. Shes from England and between her accent and continuous random sayings, she has me constantly cracking up. They seriously are so cute together and Ive never seen him so happy.

She insisted on bringing over one of her traditional holiday treats, mulled wine. It smelled absolutely delicious. Bringing me right back to christmas when I was younger and my mother would have the mulling spices set on the stove for the aroma to spread throughout the house. However, this particular treat was of the adult beverage kind. It was a mixture of wine (i think she said pinot noir), mulling spices (not the prepackages kind, more like the individual kind she had to search for), and brandy. She set it on the stove to keep warm and poured the four of us each a small glass. I took a sip of mine, gave a small smile and i told her it was "different." Different as in, i feel like im drinking a bottle of cough syrup, different.

We proceeded to move out onto the back patio where we relaxed, talked, and just enjoyed the presence of friends. I dont remember exactly where in the evening it happened (probably due to the amount of "cough syrup" i had just taken), but one of us had mentioned that we couldnt possibly drink any more of the mulled wine, maybe due to the beverage now sitting cold (trust me it doesnt taste any better cold, probably worse). Then it dawned on us, why not introduce her to one of our holiday treats. And thats when the spiked eggnog was cracked open ;) We explained to her, that considering it never really gets below 70degrees in south florida around christmas time, that we like to drink our adult beverages more on the cold side, opposed to the hot cider-ish cough syrup lol. Then, the kicker, she said she would have probably added more brandy if she had been home in England. lmao.

I think right about midnight was when I realized I had forgotten to get eggs for Christmas morning breakfast. I quick texted my best friend who was on her way over, to stop at the quicky mart down the street and buy me eggs (what? youve never done that before?) She was a life saver and showed up about 15mins later with a dozen eggs for us. We then proceeded to introduce her to the mulled wine. I dont know how she did it, but by the time she left there was not one drop of the stuff left in the pot on the stove. She even claimed the next day that she liked it. We're still a little confused.

We realized it was well best 1am by now. And considering we were hosting christmas morning, we should probably already be all nestled and snug in our beds. ;) So we wished them all a merry christmas and off they went. I snuck into Matthews room one more time to make sure he was snug too. It looked like Santa had already visited our house and I knew there would be so much excitement in the morning.