December 24th: Christmas Eve

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...in hopes that our little one soon would be here...
Sigh...

You know I had high hopes of holding my little baby in my arms on Christmas day this year.  My midwife has said several times that maybe we were meant to spend one more Christmas as a family of three...and maybe she's right.  If the Littlest was here tonight, I would never have been able to tuck my Little in tonight and collaboratively with my husband tell her the Christmas story using her Little People Nativity set.  Her set comes with a the stable, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, an angel, some animals, and the wise men.  We improvised shepherds with a Happy Town (the UK version of Little People) cowboy, Indian, and little ring bearer, we also added a Gus and Trouble.  I think that over all it was an effective use of bed time story time...I wish you could here the way she says "gold, frankincense, and myrrh" in her little 2 year old voice, or "knock, knock, knock, but there was no room at the inn.".
Tonight is the first Christmas Eve ever that I have not been in the house that I grew up in.  Most Christmas Eve's we are rushing to church with Mom and Dad, then curling up by their tree in the basement.  Since staying at home was a better option for us this year (you know...just in case) we spent a lovely evening with friends.

Tomorrow will be the first Christmas ever that I have not spent at that house drinking in time with family.  For a girl who normally doesn't deal well with change, I'm surprisingly okay with it, I know that we are right where we need to be.  However, I'm trying not to think about that girl and her family that are spending their first Christmas away from us in  CA.

Instead I'm just trying to remember that this year is different for a good reason (it has do with poor timing on the part of me and the mister...hehe). 

The really great part of this different kind of Christmas for us is, that it doesn't change why we celebrate.  Just b/c we are here at my haphazardly decorated house instead of at my Mom's that is always decorated just so, and just b/c we apart from the ones that we love, doesn't change the fact that Christmas will always be Christmas.  It will always be the day that Love was sent to the world in the form of a teeny, tiny, wrinkled skin, scrunched up leg newborn to save you, to save me...He alone is enough of reason to celebrate, even if it is in a different way than what we're used too.

Different or not, here's to you dear ones, I hope that you find yourself celebrating the birth of the Savior tomorrow...Merry Christmas.

That's a wrap.
I'm going to finish watching White Christmas and then go have my own visions of sugar plums.
I'll be back soon, hopefully with pictures of my own crinkled, wrinkled little new born.  Unless of course she waits another week or two, in which case I'll post pictures of my living room strewned with ripped wrapping paper and piles of new toys.
Sleep in heavenly peace friends.
Big Christmas love to you from our little corner of the world.
C
xoxo