Friendly Christmas

What a delightful week we've spent. On Christmas Eve, the boys woke, jittery, so I made them do school. "Most children in America do not have to do school on Christmas Eve," said Jadon. True, but most children in America don't get to play outside through gorgeous weather in October.

Christmas Eve marked our 12.5 year anniversary. A gentle snow fell for a bit in the morning, just enough to whiten the grass, before a gentle rain fell for the rest of the day. Jadon and Abraham made an enormous batch of chocolate-chip cookies, and Abraham watched while I made fudge.

A friend from church hosted a party, and the boys couldn't wait to attend: as an adult open-house, I had promised them they could watch a movie in a room by themselves, a great treat indeed. The boys' cookies were well received.

From there, most of the party headed to another friends house for a low-key Christmas Eve service with carols by guitar and the Christmas story. Here, too, the boys were excited: these friends took one of our puppies, and we were happy to see Tess. (She was happy to see us, too.) During months of Bible study, the boys enjoyed playing with the play kitchen, and they happily stayed downstairs for hours.

Jadon was wired when we reached home, and I wondered, as midnight came and went, if he would wake everyone up to open stockings.

The stockings were hung by the window with care, and it took me over an hour just to stuff them with 20-odd little things, plus one or two highly-anticipated things, almost all from Phil's mother.

The boys had joked about rising at 7, or 5, or 4, or 12:30am! Happily, they weren't quite that eager. Abraham woke first, calling out, "Merry Christmas, Mommy." Which then woke Joe. "Merry Christmas, Joe." That woke Jadon. "Merry Christmas, Jadon."

I was so excited to open presents, that when Phil suggested we all go back to sleep, I suggested we wake Isaiah. That was not easy—he's a good sleeper!—but finally all were awake and ready.

The great thing about stocking stuffers is that they take a while to open, and then they take the rest of the day to actually use and enjoy. While we ate our way through three boxes of gluten-free muffins, a special treat, along with leftover cookies (and fudge), the boys put together their little Lego sets, set up the Spiderman figurines in various configurations, "talked" with their long-anticipated beanie babies, and played new board games.

Then we headed to our long-time friends' house, to share Christmas evening with the friends who enticed us to Virginia to begin with.

I had another open house to enjoy on Wednesday, while Phil stayed with the boys. It rained heavily almost all day, so at last the plants have sufficient water. Thankfully Phil was able to open the next paddock for the cows to graze: the rain made tractor travel too treacherous.

What a very friendly Christmas season this has been.