Today is of course the day before Christmas (more commonly known as Christmas Eve or the Evening before Christmas). Melissa is currently at work and will be until just after lunch. Which is fine as nothing is planned this morning and I’m mostly cleaning or at least trying to get the kids to clean. This is the first year that we have tracked Santa with Norad/Google Earth. Chase (4 year old) is loving it. He gets excited when it shows Santa move from one place to another. I had to of course explain whats going on because he didn’t understand at first why Santa was out because it wasn’t dark here. Maybe when Santa hits the US he will be excited to go to bed and actually fall asleep. We, as a family, are still starting and setting traditions that we hope to keep every year. He is also excited to put out cookies and milk for Santa along with some carrots for the Reindeer. One of my favorites is driving around looking at lights and the Christmas Displays. We have done this before in Lawton, OK but you would drive for hours before finding a house. Here in Wichita Falls there are tons of areas with lots of lights up. Everybody gets into it a little more. Plus MSU has their display which we drove by. Didn’t get a chance to walk it as the day we wanted to it was 27F outside and really windy. We spent Saturday night driving around Iowa Park (the place where I grew up, pre-junior high) and Burkburnett. You can see some pictures in my flickr profile.
Our shopping is done, kinda. Does anybody ever say their Christmas shopping is done and mean it? We have said it about 15 times and didn’t mean it any of those times. I have a few more things to buy for Melissa today (yes last minute shopping) and we have to get some clothes for Rachael still (this is actually her Melissa’s dad as he just gives us money for them). The tree is packed with presents and the ones from Santa are sitting in my closet (mostly put together) and ready for Santa to come get them out. We also have all our food ready. Which mostly includes what we had at Thanksgiving again. I just love turkey. It will just be Me, Melissa, and the kids for Christmas. Not spending it with other family and just having a personal one. It will be our first one without family over or driving to other houses. Our plan is tonight the kids get to open one present each (night clothes). We are then going to light the fireplace and watch The Santa Claus 1. Tomorrow the kids will get to make a huge mess by opening their presents and we plan to have some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and watch The Santa Claus 2. Then get the turkey going and get everything else ready (cookies, fudge, etc). I believe we plan to eat about 1pm. The turkey is smaller as its just us so it won’t take but 4 hours to cook. Then Christmas night we will be watching The Santa Claus 3 before bed. The kids are wanting to watch all three of the movies (they are great movies) so it will keep them busy and us. We did all of our exchanges with other family members on Wednesday and Friday of last week so we don’t have to get out at all tonight or tomorrow. I will be uploading lots of pics via my flickr account tomorrow and I’m sure I will be twittering most of the day.
- 15.5lbs Turkey
- 7lbs Ham (topped with pineapple and cherries)
- Stuffing
- Mash Potatoes
- Brown Gravy
- Deviled Eggs
- Corn on the Cob
- Green Beans
- Fruit Salad
- Cranberry Sauce
- Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
- Pumpkin Pie
- Cherry Pie
- Cookies & Cream Fudge
- Sugar Cookies