Christmas Eve

Lehr had the day off and we had grandiose plans of taking the kids to the river to run around and let Eli ride his bike. We heard noises from Eli's room around 8AM and we brought him into our bed. Lehr then went and roused Maddux to join us. She was obviously still sleepy, as she just lay down silently next to us and occasionally sucked her thumb. After thirty minutes, we all got up, but Maddux was still in the emotionless, quiet stage. Very unlike her. I got her dressed and ended up carrying her downstairs. At this point I'd only managed to make her smile once, and even that was a stretch. Not two minutes after we walked into the kitchen, her stomach lurched and she vomited a little. I brought her to the bathroom in case she had to continue, but she just lay on the floor and closed her eyes. We'd already checked her head a few times due to her demeanor, but still no sign of a fever. I got her special blanket and set her up on the floor next to the kitchen table where Eli ate. She did sit in her chair for a few moments...long enough to eat about three spoonfuls of cereal. Then I took her back upstairs while the boys went outside. We decided to skip the river and let the boys go pick up Eli's bike (in a repair shop) instead. I put Maddux on my bed with her blanket while I wrapped a few last minute gifts. This is something she would not normally do. She'd be ants-in-the-pants, moving all around the bed, possibly jumping off. The poor girl kept drifting in and out of consciousness until finally she started snoring for good. She slept a good thirty minutes before waking up and instantly returning to her normal self. Weird.

We played at the house all morning and took a quick nap before church. It started to rain before we arrived at church, causing the day to be very gloomy and cold, but we promised a fire when we returned home. (Lehr got a few pictures of the kids all dressed up since I was already at church when they got ready. Same 'concentration face' on Eli as last year.) The service was great: short and diverse enough to keep the kids interested. Maddie was a bit wiggly, but she did alright.

After church we ended up lingering a bit longer that planned, and we still needed to get home to eat dinner and do Christmas Eve 'things'. Add to that the pouring rain and we decided to skip Christmas Lights until the next night. We lit a fire, ate a quick dinner and sat down to read Christmas books and open one gift. We read the kids' favorite book of the season (pop-up Story of Christmas), and a few pages from the Bible. Then, while Maddux was having success on the potty AGAIN, Eli and I talked about a few details. Up until this point, I don't think Eli knew what Santa's role was in Christmas. He knew he was a big presence, and he knew that reindeer helped him get around, but that's it. We talked about Christmas, and how it is Jesus' birthday and how He got gifts from the Wise Men. I asked him how many and he told me 'three'. Then I said that because Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birthday, we also get three gifts. And Santa brings them. At this point, Eli's eyes got really wide. He was already hanging on my every word, which was really cool, but now even more. I proceeded to talk about who Santa Clause is; that he's a Saint (of course there were questions about what a saint was/is) and that he became a Saint by bringing gifts to kids who didn't have moms and dads or homes. Fast forward to now when Santa brings presents to all kids (but only three). Eli's jaw was on the ground. NOW the questions came about how he could get around to all of the houses in Atlanta and Reno and China. Magic and reindeer were discussed. It was a cool, cool conversation and I really think most of his amazement was because of things other than the gifts.

We then opened one gift each. Lehr had the great idea to have them open the gifts they got for each other (to make them stand out a little more). Eli got Maddux the perfect gift, one that embodies the two things she loves most in the world (play-doh and food): a play-doh fun factory burger shop. And Maddie got Eli a cool fold-up match-box repair shop. He was ALL about it. One special cookie was put out for Santa, with a note, and Eli sprinkled reindeer food (made at school) on the front lawn. Oh the anticipation!