Twas the Night Before Christmas....

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring...especially not Philip!!

I'll get to that later. We have had a great couple of days. Yesterday, Will and Patrick came over and played with the boys. We made sugar cookies and played around inside for awhile. When they ventured outside, Frederick and Ben joined us. Philip, Daniel, and William (who sat on a blanket and watched) had a ball playing with their neighbors. It pays to live in a boy-dominated neighborhood!!

After dinner and bed for the little ones, I made an apple cake with caramel icing for Christmas Eve with the in-laws. Not only was it delicious, it turned out perfectly!! Very exciting for me!!

Christmas Eve morning was busy. Susan, Rob, and Elizabeth joined us for breakfast. I made a coffee cake, grits, and sausage. We had a great time visiting.

I think the boys really wore Aunt Elizabeth out. She played hard with them!!

I left to run some last minute errands while Daniel napped. While I was out, Dottie called to report that they had no power. After some debate, we decided to move Christmas Eve dinner to our house. I quickly scrambled to get the fine china and silver out. Most silver wasn't polished, but I am thankful that my in-laws do not care!!

We dressed for church....

and left knowing that Trinity too would be without power. I managed to get the three boys across Dauphin Street by myself in the rain! Quite a fete! There was no nursery due to power outage, so I brought all three into the church with me. Chris had to usher, but thankfully I sat with Aunt Heather, Uncle Cameron, Dee, and Aunt Elizabeth, so I had a lot of help.

The service was absolutely beautiful. The candlelight filled the church (reminded me of MD's wedding many years ago)...along with lots of little children's voices! I was so happy to be sitting there in the dark surrounded by my children and my family. Philip and I talked before the service about how Isiah told the people of Isreal, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." We talked about the current darkness of the church and the light to be born that night. He commented on how Father Matthew's chasible had changed to white...for celebration! So neat!

As I got the boys back in the car, I told them how well behaved they were. In all honesty, for their respective ages, they were great!!

Back to the house for dinner. It took awhile to get the meal together, so the big boys changed into their pajamas...camoflauge this year...Christmas ones were too pricey! William went on to bed.

The meal was great...crown pork roast, asparagus rolls, stuffing, and homemade rolls. Unfortunately, Philip simply gave out at the table!! Couldn't keep those eyes open.

Daniel enjoyed the attention and then placed cookies and milk out for Santa before heading off to bed too.

After cleaning dishes, Chris and I had more cooking to do...one more almond tart for breakfast and twice baked potatoes for Christmas day lunch! Then off to bed to wait for Santa!