Because we're travelling to Alberta for Christmas, we decided, and explained to the kids, that we would have a pre-Christmas here at home where we would open all of our BIG gifts, that wouldn't fit in our suitcases. They were surprisingly ok with that. So this weekend we deemed "Express Christmas!" It's very similar to regular Christmas, just a week early.
Express Christmas started with Christmas Eve, as most Christmases do. We had some friends over from our Branch for a nice dinner, to play games, and hang out. Coincidentally, they happened to be the families who Tyler Home Teaches...and both of the ladies Visit Teach me...so it was a triple-threat evening. We're very express in our Express Christmas. I wasn't much in the mood for cooking Christmas dinner, since we'll be getting the 'real deal' in a week, so I decided that our Express Christmas was going to be exotic. And by exotic, I mean, Mulligatawny, with all it's curry goodness...I'm not sure if curry powder is truly considered exotic, but I like it. Mulligatawny and buns. Mmm-mmm. The day was a bit chaotic as I had been planning to clean house the day before, but with Lucy's need to go to Emerg for an ear infection, plans got derailed. So Express Christmas Eve was also Chaotic Christmas Eve. But I don't think that's much different from the real Christmas Eve either.
Cleaned house, made food - which consisted of having Tyler go to the store...twice, for ingredients that I forgot I didn't have (this cold is really doing a number on my brain function), and got super excited for the events. Guests arrived and we greeted them with a beautiful cup of EggNog. Welcome All! It was mostly just Tyler, Me, and Lucy - apparently EggNog isn't a huge hit out here. It comes to stores around Thanksgiving in Alberta and stays until New Years. It's so popular, that sometimes the shelves are completely sold out some days. They have AS big of an eggnog section as they do regular milk. Not in Ontario. There's a tiny little section devoted to a few cartons of EggNog, and that's it. Traditionally, I buy EggNog at Safeway, because it's just the best kind. But there is no Safeway here, so we debated between Neilson brand and PC brand. PC claimed to be the best tasting EggNog ever...so we decided to give them a try. After everyone had had a good share of EggNog, someone pointed out that this kind *apparently* has RUM in it. What great Home Teachers we are. I immediately took Lucy's glass away from her and promised to get more EggNog another time...minus the Rum. Are they even allowed to sell alcoholic beverages in a grocery store? Apparently. Of course, it did say in big letters on the front of the carton, "With a touch of Rum", but somehow, we missed that. So now I have 4 cartons of Rum...er...EggNog. Any takers?
Now that we were all sufficiently tipsy, we decided to eat. I've heard it's not good to have alcohol on an empty stomach. Eating, laughing, playing. Again, not unlike regular Christmas Eve. Tyler gave his home teaching lesson and asked everyone to make a list of 100 things they were grateful for. It took us a while, but everyone pretty much got the list down. Lucy REALLY tried. Her list consisted of 17 items, and she just couldn't think of anything else. Her 17 items are pretty great:
1. My Family
2. Temple
3. Food
4. Water
5. The Church
6. Trees
7. The World
8. My Friends
9. Christmas
10. Teachers
11. Socker (I believe that's soccer)
12. Stars
13. My Eyes
14. My nose
15. My mouth
16. My Legs
17. My Arms
Perfect.
Then, we dressed up and acted out the Luke 2 Nativity story, while Tyler narrated. Max was the Angel. Lucy and Logan were Wise Men. It was great.
After the wise men delivered their gifts, a few of our guests had to leave. The remainder of us played our favourite "movie character/charades game" I don't know what else to call it. It was a late night for the kids, but that's not too different from a regular Christmas Eve either.
Lucy broke out in an itchy rash all over her torso and arms and we were concerned whether it was a reaction to the penicillin she's on, or just another symptom of the cold. It's hard to say. It was a late night (how does that always happen?) as Tyler and I wrapped last minute gifts - actually, I was totally prepared. Tyler had gifts to wrap. I had a kitchen to clean.
We woke up this morning to Max coming into our room to use the bathroom at about 7:50am. He came in, peed, and left. Nice. We all got up about 8:30. Max said, "It's Christmas! Let's go open my presents!" To which we responded, "Oh, everyone needs to shower and stuff first." And he bought it, with no pouting either. "Oh, right. So when do you think we'll open presents today?" Excited for Express Christmas Day!
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