We had a wonderful Christmas Eve (day). Not so much night, but more on that in a bit.

Dave cooked everyone a scrumptious Stromboli lunch! He put broccoli in one of them and my goodness was it good. (And you know it was good if I am giving food mention on my blog.) I failed to get pictures of any of this. Boo.

Then Little Bug and Grandma made a birthday cake for Jesus!

Little Bug proudly proclaimed to her Uncle, “Tomorrow is Jesus’ birthday!!”

Uncle asked her, “How old is he going to be?”

Little Bug said with a puzzled look on her face, “I don’t know!”

So Uncle told her, “He is the Alpha and Omega!”

Little Bug had so much fun making a cake for Jesus’ Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

My mom really wanted to start this tradition with Little Bug because her sister would always do this with the cousins when we were little kids and all together for Christmas!

Then, for some crazy reason we decided that we would go to the Christmas Eve service at 6pm at my Grandmother’s church.

Oh, yeah, we went because…it is tradition!!!

Well, put quite simply, it was a disaster!

The first ten minutes were wonderful. We walked in just as the service had started. My parents and Grandmother were already there saving seats for us on the back row (thankfully).

As we came in they were singing Christmas Carols. I could barely sing because I kept getting choked up as I had Sweet Pea in my arms, my wonderful husband by my side and my Little Bug down the pew with her Uncle. That was a very special moment for me as I just thanked God for all He has given me.

Then we sat down. Little Bug migrated to the end of the pew we were sitting on. I swaddled Sweet Pea and put her in her car seat so she could nap.

Then Little Bug started talking loudly. I got up and left with her. As soon as I walked outside I had flashbacks to last Christmas Eve service where I spent the majority of the service walking Little Bug up and down the sidewalk!

It wasn’t long and I got a text from Dave saying Sweet Pea was crying and wouldn’t stop, even with the paci.

Overstimulated baby. Nice. (This was about the 5th instance this Christmas season where we took Sweet Pea out in public around a large group of people with lots of stimulation and she ended up just screaming until we swaddled her and got her in a dark room. It was just too much for her. Poor thing.)

We met at the side of the church and hung out there with a screaming Sweet Pea and Little Bug, who was being Little Bug.

And then we decided that there was really no logical reason for us to be there! We could have stayed home, had our own family service in the living room, sung Christmas Carols and avoided standing outside the church with an active toddler and wailing baby, waiting for the service to be finished so we could all go home.

Call us heathens, but until our children are able to sit through a service without needing to be taken out, we will be having our own little Christmas Eve service at home from now on! Sometimes traditions need to be modified for a season of time!

After the service our tradition has always been to drive around and look at Christmas Lights.

Sweet Pea had settled in her cocoon of darkness (i.e. the car seat draped with a blanket), so we drove around for about 15 minutes before stopping by my parent’s house so my mom could give the girls their Christmas pj’s!

Little Bug was so excited about her snowmen pj’s!

And that was our Christmas Eve 2011!

- Elaine