Ho ho ho! It's Christmas Eve!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, one and all! I am so sorry that I've neglected to post this whole week. I was sick at the beginning of the week and had a fun interview planned for yesterday that didn't end up working out I guess, so here we are to Saturday already - almost the day we've been waiting for! How's everyone feeling? Good? Excited? Stressed? Haha :) I'm ready to sit back, relax, and hopefully enjoy the holiday.

The Importance of Christmas

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to lecture you all about how we need to keep the Christ in Christmas. I am pretty sure the people that read my blog all realize that and continuously include Christ in their Christmas season. Nope, I simply wanted to talk about what Christmas means to me. Afterall, I've been holding this blogfest about Christmas but haven't put too much input into it from myself yet :) Lol

Christmas is a magical time of year. I truly feel like I begin celebrating as soon as I possibly can after Thanksgiving. I don't want to cut off Thanksgiving, that has its' own time. However, Christmas is the bigger holiday in our family. I love everything about Christmas minus the added stress! Lol! The sparkling lights, majestic trees, smell of gingerbread men and homemade rolls baking, Christmas carols playing softly in the background. It is truly magical.

Christmas Eve brings many special things, as does Christmas, in this household. Though my sister and I have to work, we will help prepare all the food at Gramma's before or after work (depending on which girl we're talking about lol). I have one last present to finish still, then wrap. Otherwise, it is a very laid back day. Presents are brought down to Gramma's from our household and Alicia and I put our presents to each other and Mom under our tree at home.

Tomorrow night we will sit through one of my favorite church services of the year. Each year, Pastor Lory is able to slightly and subtly change the Christmas story (not that it needs changing) which makes it even more interesting. I think tonight's service will be the first one where I am not going to be Head Shepherd in the pageant, so that will be a change. Afterwards, we will drive around to admire Christmas lights :) Then it's home to cookies and hot coco in our Santa mugs - yum! Alicia and I get our ONE present on Christmas Eve; it's always new pjs but we act surprised lol. Next, the two of us scramble upstairs and watch A Christmas Story while Mom is doing....soooooomething downstairs O_o hmmm wonder what? LOL! It's the one day of the year that Alicia and I actually go to bed pretty well for her, so that's a plus.

All in all, Christmas wraps our family up tight, yes tighter than normal lol. Though we are big gift givers, we also realize this is precious time that holds high value. My great uncle, Edward, was put in a nursing home this fall. We didn't even think he'd still be alive at this point. He is my grampa's last living sibling and only a couple years older than him. Likewise, Gramma has three living siblings still, but they're all "getting up there" so to speak. Edward's health problems and reluctant placement into a nursing home has really breathed new life into the concept of time for everyone in our family. We certainly cherish all the time we have with Gramma and Grampa, our other family too for that matter.

To get back to the happy of the season, Alicia and I did a remake of the classic 'Twelve Days of Christmas'! It was an early present for Mom (since we couldn't wait anymore! LOL!) and our aunt has seen it also. The rest of our family will see it Sunday :P Buuuuuuuuuut Alicia gave me her blessing to show you all, since you're my extended family : ) Please excuse the bad singing, any weird acting, and funky editing stuff lol you have to understand we were up until like 1am working on this! LMBO!! It sure was fun though XD So without further ado:

If video doesn't play, here's the LINK.

Hahahahah whatdya think!? Please be nice :O lol.

Remember that all the giveaways are open until December 27 and there are NO entries on Trish Perry's post so....if you enter, you'll win as of right now :) Winners will be announced before December 30, so get your last entries in and tell your friends too!

I hope this Christmas Eve brings you great happiness and joy in all you do, lots of family time too!

Love,

Hannah