Christmas Eve 2013

Tonight we attended the 4:00 service at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church. This is our second year to attend church services at Christmas at our own church and we really love the familiar feel to being in our own church with our church family. I must admit that the kids were not perfect. Grace was well behaved, but a tad noisy and wanted to wiggle around on the ground instead of stay in my arms. However, that is to be expected for a 9 month old. Atticus was good for the first half, happily eating his snack and not moving around too much. But, it didn't take long to get into his normal routine of not being great during services. We lasted through the sermon, but he did have to be taken out for a few minutes for a talk. I'm not sure it did much good. I keep telling myself that this is going to continue to be a rougher week, since we have so much going on and have already ruined sleeping times for the past two weekends with traveling. But, sometimes it is so frustrating because he knows how to act and he knows when he is misbehaving. In fact, he knows so well that a spanking is what will happen when he is taken out once in church and then misbehaves again (at least that is usually what I tell him - "Atticus, if I have to take you out of church, you will get as spanking"), that right before I took him out, he called out "Mommy don't div me a panking". Ugh. I don't know that may heard it or understood him, other than me and Vic. Anyways, we survived, took a family picture, and headed home to get ready for Santa to arrive (since Atticus has been so good, right? he deserves to have Santa come see him, right? ah - such a tough age!).

It was a very fun evening though. We changed into our pj's, played with toys, made Christmas cookies for Santa, set them out, read stories including The Night Before Christmas (online - we don't have the book!) and went to bed. It was a lot of fun to cut out a quick batch of sugar cookies, watch Atticus drench some in icing and "pinkles" and then set them out with a glass of milk for Santa. He really thought he needed to help Santa eat them, but finally agreed that they were only for Santa.

On a side note, it has been a fun year to talk about Santa and Baby Jesus with Atticus. He completely understands that Santa Taus and Missus Taus live at the north pole with the elves and the reindeer. He knows that the elves make toys and that Santa brings toys to good boys and girls, although sometimes he thinks he is funny when he tells me that Santa brings toys to bad boys! Oh goodness! He has loved us singing Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. He has also like the Rudolph and Frosty movies and reading all of the Christmas books this year. He points out the lighted reindeer and asks when they will "yight up!". He will tell you all 8 reindeers names plus Rudolph. He has played with so many ornaments on the tree and names them or takes them off and puts them randomly in the house. He will "pick a banch" to put them back on when told. Also, he has learned the story of Baby Jesus and with a little help, can tell you the entire story with his toy nativity. He has a rubber ducky nativity for the bathtub and his Little People nativity. Also, hilarious enough, he started the month out being very confused between Noah and Santa. In fact, at the end of November, he went with Vic to Lowe's and called out "Noah" to all of the Santa decorations. Throughout this past month, he continues to sometimes say Noah instead of Santa and I never correct him. These past few days, he has only said Santa so I guess it has finally sunk in, but was pretty adorable for awhile. He can sing the entire song of Away in a Manger, although sometimes gets a little shy when in front of others. He knows this is Baby Jesus' birthday although he also sometimes will first try to be funny and tell you it's his birthday. He always corrects himself to tell us it is really Baby Jesus birthday though. In fact, recently, we were meeting my friends and their kids for a birthday lunch. I told him it was Mrs. Cecilia's birthday and he said "no mommy - it's baby Jesus' birthday!". So, I have been happy that this has soaked in as much as possible for this year. During the nativity story, he will tell us that an angel told Mary she was going to have a baby and name it baby Jesus and that she needed to go to Bethlehem town. He can tell you that the wise men brought presents of "fankinsense" and "gold". He knows that Mary and Joseph are the mommy and daddy. It is just so fun to talk about with him!

I am getting very excited for tomorrow morning to see how his reaction to Santa will be!