Christmas Eve!

It's here! Charlotte is so excited she can hardly stand it, and I hope she can.  It is a tough time for her, she doesn't like change, anticipation, it literally drives her nuts. I love surprises but she can't tolerate them, and it is hard for me to remember/relate to that.  But I need to, the next few days will call for alot of patience.  We are off to Ashley Court at 9:30 to do our Christmas communion service. I am so happy and proud that all the kids and Jer go with me.  All the residents love them, and they can sense the caring the kids have for them.  One gal, Helen, was very upset and confused as she was brought down to the service, and Danny sat right next to her.  She got a huge smile on her face when I told her that Danny would take care of her, and she relaxed and stayed for the whole service.  We had a big crowd, with family members in to visit.  Rosemarie had set up a really beautiful altar in building one, I was a little intimidated!  But the story is JOY, glad tidings and a happy message.  JESUS came to save us all, not some people, or rich people, or beautiful people, or people with no disabilities....ALL of US!  So what a joy to share that message this morning with all those folks.
From there we headed to Karen and Eric's for the annual Christmas Eve brunch-fest. We usually have it at our house, but we hadn't had a chance to see their tree, so we went there.  All of Karen's decorations look beautiful, and we had a delicious lunch of dips, sandwich's, chips(muliti-grain pringles, i swear!) and pumpkin crumble.  Samantha was home, and we also opened presents and had our UNO tourney.  Embarrassingly, it was a Hincka sweep, maybe next time they will want to supply the deck of cards to be sure it hasn't been tampered with!
Charlotte and I went to the children's mass at 4pm, then we came home and ate lasagna, hung stockings, read The Wonderful Window, The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree and Christmas At Long Pond as we do each year.  I love the traditions! Another one we do every year, as we did in the Gallagher family, is everyone opens up their gift of  new PJ's on Christmas Eve, so they can look snappy in the morning photos. Charlotte heads off to bed, Jerry,Molly and Danny head for midnight mass, and I head up to finish wrapping(how can I not be done?!)
Merry Christmas Eve!