On Christmas Eve day, everyone slept until 9. What a blessing. I was exhausted and I don’t think I could have made it through the day otherwise. The kids and I needed to go to the grocery store and pick up a prescription for Zach's back. Safeway was bustling with people, and the meat department was nearly depleted. We planned to stay home this year and have Christmas with our little family. I thought I could find a turkey breast to put in the crock pot. I’ve never cooked a normal turkey by myself, I wouldn’t even know where to start, and I’m pretty sure I’d gag and puke if I had to touch any turkey parts. I could handle a turkey breast… But, they were out. My second choice was a pork tenderloin. You can slide those things right out of the package and into the crock pot without even touching it. Can you tell I have a raw meat phobia? The pork tenderloin that was on sale was sold out, and I’m sure the meat man was looking at me and thinking, well, what did you expect lady, why would you wait until Christmas Eve to buy your meat? Well, I’m sorry Mr. Meat Man, I’ve got two kids with me, a husband who is out of commission, and I’m just trying to pull it all together in the next few hours. He must have known what was going through my head. He gave me a nice peppercorn pork tenderloin for the sale price, and said Merry Christmas. Thanks! Maybe he was feeling happy after he told me they had $13,000 in meat sales on Friday.
Next, we were off to get the tire looked at on the vehicle. As we headed to the grocery store, it alerted me that a tire had low pressure. There wasn't any way Zach was going to get out of the house to check the tire, let alone fill it with air. The tire shop was closed, so I went to the dealership. The service department wasn’t working on Christmas Eve, but a young car salesman was helpful and added some air to my tire. Next, I needed to find some quarter inch quarter round for Zach. The lumber store was closed. I called Zach, and he asked if the salesman actually tested the tire pressure, I said no, and therefore, I went to the other dealership where our neighbor works. He was helpful, checked the pressure, and told me it was fine. Thanks Butch!
We came home and started to get ready for church. They were doing Christmas carols at 3:30, and I thought it would be nice for the kids to hear the songs. I tried to get out of the house, it was impossible. We arrived to church at 3:58 PM, it started in two minutes, and the parking was packed. Zach stayed home, there was no way he could sit through church. We were about 10 feet from the car and Brooks said he needed to go to the bathroom. We went back to the car and he stood on the side and he went in the snow. Of course, Adlyn wanted to pee in the snow as well. Ugh. Seriously? In the meantime, I see the priest running form his house to the church, he was late, as was I. Adlyn went to the bathroom. I looked at Brooks’s pants and it was a good thing I packed a second pair. He needed a change. So, back to the car, I got him changed, and we walked towards church. As we walked in, the priest was just walking down the aisle. I asked the greeter if there was room upstairs, obviously noticing the place was packed, and we wouldn’t find a place to sit. He told me there was room in the first 5 rows. Ok, off we go. We found a spot in the front row. This could either be perfect, or a complete disaster. It turned out to be perfect, with the exception that we had to leave the pew three times for someone to go to the bathroom. Perhaps they drank too much milk that afternoon? We had a perfect view of the nativity scene, poinsettias, and fresh cut Christmas trees. Brooks was excited to see baby Jesus (Gee-zee), and they said Merry Christmas (Merry Kif-ma) to those they shook hands with. They were squirmy during church, but quiet.
We loaded up in the car, and Brooks really wanted hot juice (the punch we had for his birthday party) for Christmas Eve dinner. We went back to the grocery store, it was still open. Our first Christmas Eve dinner at home was going to be one of favorites. We would have had Adlyn’s favorite, olives, but they didn’t last until dinner time from our morning trip to the store. The kids already ate them. Brooks insisted on having cake for Christmas, well, it is just like a birthday! He was on the right track. So, the kids started off with cake and ice cream, followed by some chip and dip (cheese, meat, and salsa), along with crackers with cream cheese and honey mustard, and red and green Jello, and hot juice. Yes, it was interesting, but everyone was happy. You know what? It was easy and wasn’t stressful. The kids got to open one present, and it was a big hit! We got them silly putty, and they loved making imprints form the newspaper and bouncing it on the floor. We watched Christmas Vacation, their favorite part was the ‘bad dog’ who tore up the house. We watched that several times. The evening was wrapped up by reading Polar Express, Three Snow Bears, and Olivia Helps with Christmas. They fell asleep easily. Now that everyone was off to bed, I put out the presents, filled the stockings, and went back to the sewing machine. The scarves weren’t flat like I’d hoped, so I did some additional stitching around the outside to complete it. Perfect. Good night.
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