magnificent and i celebrated Christmas eve in bed, watching a traditional Christmas film.

"it's a wonderful life"

"a Christmas carol"

"Rudolph the red nosed reindeer"

heck, even "Mr bean's Christmas" are all very good guesses, but may i lead you in anther direction.

we lay in bed exclaming over the great festive movie that is

DIE HARD

could alan rickman be any cuter? i mean, really. and bruce, so young and un-crumpled and the tushie on him!

admittedly, i didn't stay awake for all of it, i dozed off right where bruce outsmarts the forementioned mr rickman. but charles was stoic and stayed up almost until the credits. we don't need to see bonnie bedelia punch the reporter, that's a bit yawn-ish. the reporter is hilarious.

what was not yawn-ish was the next morning. sebastian stirred at around five am and i nudged charles. charles jumped out of bed and guided sebastian into the bathroom for a wee and then back to bed. by 6.45 they were assembled at the kitchen table eating froot loops (whole wheat...mean to appease me so i wouldn't gasp about how the milk turns purple after the sugar coated cereal has been in the milk for three minutes) and i was drinking tea. my throat was rather sore, i remember thinking, and my, my ears were itchy.

we opened stockings, and the kids were thrilled and so was i. some great presents from a great husband. i bought him some cashmere socks and he liked them. i was worried he might find the print too "funky", but he did like them. wore a pair this morning, i think!

the kids loved their stocking presents, the girls changed into their strawberry shortcake knickers and strawberry shortcake tights STRAIGHT AWAY. and then they danced around asking when we could open what was under the tree while charles and i got the turkey into the oven and washed dishes and got dressed, etc.

i think they loved every single present they received this year. lots of cries of

i love this present!

this is exactly what i love!

the girls received pink tutus and immediately put them on, and did twirls. jasper strummed his new guitar and sebastian announced jasper needed to share. sebastian loved his new star wars toys and superman movie. the girls received a cinderella doll that came with makeup and rollers, and they made her purple and red all over. jasper received his copy of "home alone", looked at the front picture of macauley culkin and exclaimed, "it's me!"

alot of laughter.

dinner was good, the turkey SPECTACULAR but the gravy wasn't. charles popped open a bottle of champagne (real not fizzy sparkling white) and dale and steph and their four boys came over. jasper was horrid at dinner time so he was put in his room for 90 minutes until we gave him a few morsels of dinner (no dessert) and popped him back into bed. he didn't even get to participate in the happy birthday Jesus cake or eat a piece.

the next day, i went to the hospital and got the same diagnosis as last time and a longer prescription. i don't really feel much better yet.

but it was a great Christmas. really fantastic. how was yours? were Christmases better when you were a kid, or are they better as an adult?

Comments

[lita]

mine was better when i was in hongkong.

[Dad aka Grandad Blake]

Great day! We watched a red fox trying to catch Ptarmigan in the morning,reread my digital scrapbook many times,watched some TV then headed over to the Bond's for a fantastic dinner.
Mom took us out for a brisk walk in the windchill -34 weather and we must have burned off every calorie we consumed that day.
Love to all.....Dad.

[polly]

sounds fun! our annual christmas movie tradition? a christopher guest on christmas eve. this year, best in show.

Christmas as a child was fun for the getting, but as an adult fun for the giving. I LOVE giving gifts. now that we have a child it is even more special.

[joeinvegas]

An interesting Eve tradition. All our kids are elsewhere, so we started a new tradition: sleeping in. It worked wonders.

[Marcia]

You dont realise how much work goes into christmas until you are an adult but it is well worth it to see the faces...
This year will be our last year to open gifts on christmas eve (been doing that the past three or so) as Gabriel will be able to understand it more this year.