Celebrating with the family on Christmas Eve has been a tradition for 20 years with the Mizeranys. So when I married Steve, it was something that my family just had to learn to accept. It has really worked out well too, all things considering. For the past two years, we have attended the casual, family service at TUMC with the kids. Bennett gets to pick a character from the typical Biblical people to act out the day Jesus was born. It is always slightly chaotic, but very sweet (and she has chosen to be Mary two years in a row).
After the service, Bennett and I took communion. Though she couldn't really take communion, I explained the process (as best as I could to a 3.5 year old), and we put our hands out for his "body" and "blood." I told her to eat and drink it, and then I prayed aloud for both of us. I know she was probably too young to really understand any of it, but it still brought a tear to my eye while I had my arm around her small body and we prayed while looking at the huge cross in our sanctuary. Of course, Pres was too young (and loud) to go into the sanctuary, so Steve waited outside with him. Then he took his turn, while I took the kids outside to see baby Jesus in the nativity scene.
Bennett is just fascinated with "baby Jesus." She always looks for him in every nativity set-up, and tries to pick him up whenever she can. In fact, she named our fish Mary and Jesus (Mary is the mommy and larger fish, while the smaller one is "baby Jesus").Following church, we headed over to Steve's parents for a traditional Lebanese dinner. We all ate a little something, until we couldn't take the nagging any longer from Bennett about opening presents. Of course, she just plowed through them, barely recognizing what she was receiving. Preston, on the other hand, had no desire to open any presents after he opened his first gift....a garbage truck. He is OBSESSED with trucks, firetrucks, garbage trucks, dump trucks, semi trucks, etc. Though we have a house full of these already, it didn't stop all of the family from adding to his collection, and he was ecstatic with this!
Unfortunately, it wasn't a "normal" Christmas Eve since Sara was home sick with the flu and Michelle stayed home with her. (I don't know what it was about the holidays this year, but our missing family members really put a wrench in our plans, and made everything a little off kilter.) When the kids started to unravel, Bennett chose some cookies from Mimi's stash to take home and leave out for Santa. Then it was bedtime, which neither child fought. Steve and I got the last of the gifts around the tree, then hit the hay while we anxiously awaited the arrival of Santa and Christmas morning.
