Twas the Night Before Christmas ...

... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring -- well, except Mama and Daddy, who were baking Christmas goodies, cleaning the house, wrangling babies, wrapping presents, and making our annual Christmas Eve clam chowder!

I was hoping that this Christmas Eve, since I didn't have any crazy sewing projects to complete, that I'd have a nice, relaxing day, enjoying some low-key Christmas activities. Of course, that totally didn't happen -- in spite of (literally) weeks of preparation, my "to do" list was still pretty long by the time Christmas Eve day rolled around. Although it was a busy day, we managed to squeeze some fun in as well.

We managed to bake one pie, one cheesecake, and one layer cake, put together the dough for the Christmas morning cinnamon rolls, finish off another batch of fudge, finish cleaning and straightening up the house (including an impromptu living room furniture rearrangement), make Christmas Eve dinner, make gingerbread cookies with Max, wrap all the presents, and hang all the stockings by the chimney with care. Whew! And, this will be the first Christmas Eve in a long time that I'll make it into bed before the wee hours of the morning.

I'd been planning to make gingerbread cookies with Max since LAST winter, when became totally fascinated with a Babybug story, where a little boy and his mother make gingerbread cookies. Max and I made the dough a few days ago, but hadn't gotten around to making the cookies. So, although I wasn't planning to make them on Christmas Eve, that's exactly what we ended up doing! Max, of course, had a blast. He helped cut out the cookies and was in charge of the decoration. I had gotten currants to use for eyes and red hots for buttons. I dumped a pile of currants out on the counter and was totally impressed when Max I dumped out a bunch of currants to use as eyes. Max grabbed some and started putting them on the cookies -- I was impressed that he neatly and carefully put two "eyes" in the right spot on each cookie, without any instruction from me. The buttons were a little more hit and miss -- they ended up in all sorts of places!

When the cookies were finished, Max and Molly got in their new Christmas pjs and we settled down for the traditional reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas," along with their new Christmas book ("A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree"). Unfortunately, once again, by bedtime everyone was in full melt down mode, so story time didn't go very smoothly. ;) Molly got packed off to bed in a hurry (since she was the main melter downer) and Max and I put together a plate of goodies for Santa. We left him some gingerbread cookies and some fudge, along with a carrot for the reindeer. Max was totally enthused about putting the goodies on the plate and totally confused that HE didn't get to eat them. He seemed to think that it was very strange to be leaving a plate of perfectly good cookies by the fireplace. Eventually we got the little ones tucked into bed, with visions of sugar plums and all that jazz, while Mama and Dad finished up the Christmas prep. Of course, the fact that "It's a Wonderful Life" (one of my favorite movies) was playing on the TV wasn't helping our productivity, since we kept sitting down to watch it.

But, we managed to get everything finished -- the stockings are waiting to be stuffed with treats in the morning, the presents are wrapped and sitting under the tree, and the cinnamon rolls are resting patiently in the fridge. And, just like when I was little, I can't wait for Christmas morning -- this time because I can't wait to see the kids' faces when they come down the stairs in the morning and see how "Santa" has transformed the living room.