Christmas Catch-up--Christmas Eve Extras

So, due to the copious amounts of snow, we actually had a white Christmas this year! I'd say it was my first, but we had the miracle of all weather miracles when we were surprised by a white Christmas in South Texas in 2004. That is still unbelievable--South Texas barely gets down to 40 degrees, much less 6 inches of snow! But anyway, back to our beautiful and plentiful white Christmas this year.

Because of our necessary change of plans on Christmas Eve, we were unable to continue our usual tradition of mass, open one gift (which is generally new pjs), change into said pjs, and then go look at Christmas lights. So, after the bloody nose incident, we ate dinner, opened 2 gifts (new pjs and a game for each kid to fill the time before bedtime), and read Christmas stories (the kids like Daddy to do that job because he makes up silly words to go along with the story and they think it's hysterical) before heading off to bed to await Santa's arrival. Reid couldn't fall asleep; he was "just too excited," he kept telling me. And because I had earlier told Blair that she needed to clean her room in case Santa wanted to come tuck her in (to which she obliged and cleaned her room), she fretted the entire night about Santa coming in her room. She was NOT interested in that idea at all, and I had to assure her over and over again that I would give Santa

strict orders NOT to enter that room.