Christmas Eve

We started out our Christmas Eve day with a trip to the mall to finally visit Santa. Waiting until the very last minute to do this is the way to go. No lines at all.

Then we did a minimal amount of last-minute shopping -- batteries and a couple final gifts and then had a late-ish lunch out.

It was about 3 p.m. before we got home. Then we broke down the bed we'd set up for Dad's visit last week. With so many new toys coming, the kids need all the space back in their play room.

Then by 4 it was off to church for our Christmas Eve service, which started at 5 but which we knew gets way packed early. Then back for a light dinner and opening of the annual Christmas PJs.

We were going to watch a short Christmas show with the kids before bedtime, but we pretty much smoked ourselves out of the entire bottom two floors (when we tried to start a fire ... city folks thinking we can make it out in the country, I guess). Every window and door had to be opened. And it's probably somewhere in the single digits outside. It was actually very bad.

Instead, Michael read the Christmas story from the Bible and, of course, The Night Before Christmas, too. The children left cookies and milk for Santa and a bunch of carrots for his reindeer and then went to bed.

Michael got the kids back out of bed shortly after to show them the Norad Web site that was tracking Santa and his reindeer across the world. What a totally adorable little site. It actually shows Santa and his reindeer flying across the sky right in front of Big Ben in London and other landmarks throughout the world. It also features news-like reports about Santa's location.

Upon seeing this, Alexander declared it was time to get back to bed so Santa would be sure to stop at our house. Check out the video.