This Christmas Eve started out like every year. I headed down to the kitchen after sleeping just a little bit to start on the Christmas dinner. One of these years I will learn to do the pies the day before. I started on the pies and had lots of good helpers in the kitchen. Mike is the designated peeler, slicer, and cleaner of dishes. With his help and the other girls at various times we were able to get most of dinner prepped quite early. I tried something new with the apple pie this year. I did a lattice top instead of the boring top I usually do. I loved the way it turned out. I also was able to get the cinnamon rolls done earlier in the day instead of doing them at 10pm. It was still an all-day affair to get everything done but between prepping dinner, I was able to enjoy watching the girls play the Wii together amongst other shenanigans. Mike put together an amazing charcuterie board for lunch and we gobbled that down pretty fast. I pulled out the Christmas pajamas early and let everyone wear them all day. I mean why not, right? This year I made custom shirts for everyone with my new Cricut machine. I had loads of fun picking out what would go on each person's shirt. In the afternoon we were able to talk to Peter and I wish I could say it was the most uplifting call, but he was really struggling and had been sick the week before. It was so good to see and talk with him, but it left us all missing him and sad for the situation he was in. We all ate our dinner in silence and after we had scripture study Emma gave the most heartfelt prayer for Peter. It actually made us all tear up a bit. There is nothing more real on Christmas than having to rely on the very person for whom the season is focused on. The only way we would get through Christmas this year was by having faith that God would watch out for Peter and being grateful for a Savior who knew exactly what we were all feeling.
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Twas the Night Before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring...except for the parents who were diligently putting things together for Christmas morning!!!
