Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year. You still have the anticipation of Christmas, there are gifts to be wrapped and toys to still be put together. But it's also the day the celebration officially begins. In our family, Christmas Eve is a day to eat and drink and play games and watch movies. We put out a huge spread of appetizers early in the day and spend the whole day grazing.
If family is in town, like this year, we play card games. And it's always Christmas movies all day. This year my parents came in to town, so we set up our card table (AKA we dragged the "dining room" table into our living room) and played shanghai while the kids played around us.
We let the kids stay up a little later and watched Elf as a family. Can you believe my parents had never seen it? It's pretty much my favorite Christmas movie!
And then our last Christmas Eve tradition, reading our Elf book one last time and The Night Before Christmas in front of the Christmas tree.
And finally, we tucked the kids into bed and all went to sleep so we could wait for Santa to come.
Lol, yeah right. We tucked the kids in to bed and I stayed up until almost midnight wrapping and doing stockings and putting together gifts and making sure everything was perfect. And, I admit, around 11 I started getting a little stressed and overwhelmed. But it all came together, and even with the stress Christmas Eve will always be my favorite. Because, at the end of the night right before bed, when I'm the only one still up, I get a few moments by myself to take in the magic Christmas. I love taking the last look at the tree and the stocking, taking in the calm and beauty of it before the madness of Christmas morning happens. I love the hope they hold, the promise of an amazing day to follow. I love those last minutes of still being excited and anticipating Christmas, before the big day actually comes.
Like I said, Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year.
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