Christmas Eve

I absolutely love Christmas Eve in Kirkland.  It is one of those days/evenings that brings me right back to my childhood.  It's the friends and family that we celebrate with, the smell of the seafood feast being prepared in the kitchen, the bowls of gummy bears throughout my Aunt Carol's house, the excitement in the air as we wait for Santa to come down the stairs and give everyone a gift.  For me, this evening holds the most nostalgic power over my senses.  It is the closest I can get to being a kid again and I eat up every dreamy minute of it.

Mass this Christmas Eve was wonderful.  Usually, the church is packed and there is only room to stand.  This year- they decided to hold two simultaneous masses and it really made a difference.  We were able to hear everything the priest said, we were able to be more pensive and ever present in the notion that Jesus would be born in the morning.  It grounded us all in our faith and Jesus' birth which is the real reason we celebrate Christmas anyway.  It was simply a wonderful Mass. 

Off to Aunt Carol's where the smells tickled my senses and made Damien's senses go on over drive!  He is not the biggest fan of the seafood feast.  He wants his turkey and he wants it now!  Well to that I say, 'Better luck next year!  Let the calamari, butterflied prawn, shrimp pasta, salmon fillet eating party commence!'  Truthfully, I feel for him.  It's not what he associates with Christmas Eve and that is a hard thing.  However, when I am down in California for Christmas and eating turkey- it doesn't do it for me either.  At least one of us is happy every year!

I loved catching up with my grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.  It is so crazy to see how many little kids there were running around!  As a family, we have produced A LOT of kiddos!  This year, there were five kids all within one year of each other.  Five little four/five year olds . . . in addition to all the other kids.  One funny thing that happened this year was that Gina organized a small group of the kids to rap a song.  It had hand motions and everything.  Raise the tree, Ring the Bell, Snow Angel, Cut the Tree- chop, chop, 1-2-3 Happy Holidays!  My kids loved learning the song and doing all of the motions. 

No sooner did they finish performing did all the kids go to the window to see if they could find Rudolph's nose!  Somehow, every year- Laura manages to find it first!  While they were looking they heard sleigh bells and then Santa came down the stairs!  It was pretty hysterical!  All of the screaming, all of the jumping, all of the joyful signs that Santa was finally here! 

We all received our presents, we finished off the night with a Christmas carol or two, and said our goodbyes. As we left, the little cousins wished each other luck that Santa would hopefully visit their house's in the middle of the night.  I heard a few of them say to each other, "Please let me be on the good list!"  We'll just have to wait until morning to see if he came!!  Merry Christmas Eve!!