Getting in the Christmas spirit has been hard this year. My house is still a construction site, with a layer of dust that I cannot stay on top of. My tree is hidden away in the piano room, and we are all living in my bedroom and the upstairs. I haven't had a stove or dishwasher for 3 weeks, and my kitchen sink has been gone for over a week now. I'm doing dishes in my bathroom sink, and the kids are all getting really tired of cold cereal and sandwiches. It's just chaos. And it's really stressful. Christmas has kind of been an afterthought, and it's sad. The first time I truly felt the Christmas spirit was Christmas Eve morning. I went out to do some last minute shopping. When I came home, Scott had Christmas music blaring and everyone was working at laying my new floor in the living room. All the stress melted away and I was able to finally be happy and stop worrying about everything.
We usually get together with Scott's family on Christmas Eve, but with my stress level being so high, we moved the family dinner to the 23rd, so Christmas Eve wouldn't be quite so busy. After the workers left at 1:30, Scott and I went out grocery shopping. And later that evening Scott took the last of the kids who still needed to shop for their sibling gifts to the store.
Traditional Christmas Eve pictures in front of the tree. It was a tight squeeze to get everyone in the piano room.
When bedtime came, I read two Christmas stories to the kids (The Miracle of Jonathan Toomey and The Littlest Angel). Then Scott piled the kids' mattresses on the bonus room floor, and the kids settled in to bed and watched The Polar Express.
The kids finally fell asleep at 12:30, and the Howell house waited for Santa to come work his magic.
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