I think I’m almost as excited about Christmas tomorrow as my kids are. Breanna doesn’t fully grasp it yet but she knows who Santa is and she knows what presents are so I know tomorrow she will explode in joy when she sees everything under the tree. As for Hayley, she’s definitely old enough to know exactly what’s going on and she was one giant nerve of excitement all day long.

We tracked Santa on Google Earth which is even cooler than on the NORAD site because it’s in 3D with lots of panning and zooming. Honestly, I could have sat and watched it even longer than I did had I not needed to do other things.

After I put Breanna down for a nap, I headed out to get the stocking stuff and some wrapping paper. I was expecting the worst but it wasn’t bad at all. By the time I walked all the way there, got everything, and walked back, just under an hour had passed, so that was pretty efficient since I was expecting the whole round trip to take much longer than that.

I wrapped some gifts while locked in the bedroom, then I made “magic reindeer food” with the girls at the table. Once we were ready to go outside, I bundled them up in snowsuits and figured we’d sprinkle the food around the front and then play in the snow for awhile to help tire them out (I had woken Hayley up at 7:30 but that’s no guarantee of a quick bedtime even on a regular night, let alone the night Santa’s coming by). We lasted about three minutes because in the short time since I had come home, it had gotten ridiculously windy and we were too cold. Breanna couldn’t even catch her breath, so we quickly spread out the food and then came back upstairs. Had I known, I wouldn’t have bothered with the hassle of snowsuits!

We also baked cookies for Santa, watched several holiday specials, and listened to lots of non-Christmas music (I’ll put some appropriate music on in the morning though). After supper we did bath time and then I put the kids in bathrobes so they could open their traditional Christmas Eve gift of pajamas. Breanna love to open presents so she took the task very seriously and was overjoyed when she saw what she got. She yelled, “OHH! PAJAMAS!” Then she held them up, saw they had a sheep print, and said, “sheep, bee-yoo-tiful!” Hayley was very pleased to see hers were covered in snowmen making snow angels.

Much to my utter shock bedtime was smooth. I read two Christmas stories to them (which was a challenge since I have a very impressive cough and can barely speak), then we set out cookies with chocolate milk for Santa and an apple for the reindeer, brushed teeth, and they both went to bed. Breanna was out within about ten minutes because she didn’t have a very long nap, and Hayley, my girl who can fight sleep like it’s going to hurt her, well she was passed out before 9 pm. I don’t think that’s happened since she was two!

George and I got the rest of the gifts wrapped – we had to wait because some of the bigger boxes were in his parents’ garage – and I prepared the stockings. Now we’re just watching a movie (well, mostly he is, I’m not in a big movie mood tonight) and soon I think we’ll get some sleep ourselves because who knows how early tomorrow morning will start. I do draw the line at any activity before 6 am though! I’m putting the baby gate up in the hall to block any overeager little feet from wandering into the living room before we’re ready.

As for my own excitement, I am positively giddy and can’t wait. I love everything we got for the girls and just about everything from us will be an unexpected surprise. I hope both kids sleep through the night, but I also hope I can get some sleep myself!

Merry Christmas!