christmas eve in actuality

the dinner of  'rogs seemed like it was really good but i couldn't taste much of it.  i totally doused mine in vinegar and could.not.taste.it.  i took too much and felt too full.  sarah was quickly balooning out with a #notababy and was increasingly uncomfy despite all her prune juice drinking.  we had sparkling apple cider 'champagne' and toasted to christmas eve. after we all had our fill we bundled up, which for me was donning my fluffy pink mitts and borrowing a soft red and black plaid scarf. i was also wearing my cranberry short sleeve drape-y carty...if these words make sense to you, then you know.  if they don't, then you don't know and there's no use telling you.  adriel and sloan wore onesies.  adriel's onesie is so baggy that another person can fit in it at the same time as him, a theory we tested by putting sloan in with him one day....i digress.  we piled in sahib the habeeb and drove to langford practicing our songs on the way.  in angels the boys added an extra note at the end of gloria and swore that's the way it went.  then adriel said he could sing the alto sax part.  "you can't sing alto sax.."i heard sarah as we walked up to the door.  oh yeah, first we met up with sarah and kyle's friend, jordan, who is also their dentist, and his two girls, outside the rebalkin's house.  jordan was all, yeah, i'll sing baritone, and we were like ok... the rebalkins were home which was a success in and of itself.  after we sang reuban went around and shook every one of our hands and said merry christmas robotically.  jordan had a fancy schmancy van so he said we should all pile into his van, so we did.  kyle drove and he enjoyed it.  the van had automatic brights which feature, was particularily handy to kyle on this night.  it also had heated seats even in the back and checkers games on screens on the seats and jordan played sloan as we drove. he also showed us how you can move the head rests in the back while you are driving to give those back seaters a little knock in the noggin if you wanted to.  adriel enjoyed that part.

ifosa and isosa were not home so we did our tradition of singing to an empty home and then we went to badesso's but they weren't home either, but they did have a cool basketball court which adriel pointed out more than once.  our last stop was the rogers. president rogers is their branch president.  they are a kindly and friendly older couple and in the silence directly following our carol, adriel asked president rogers if he got his sweater vest at a thrift store.  we were all shocked for a minute but president rogers who along with his wife does enjoy a good thrift store find, just looked down at it and kind of laughed and said "no, not this one." they invited us in and we discovered a homey little home decorated all over with little things here and there.  it kind of reminded me of mom's style of christmas decorating.  i can't remember how many nativity sets she said she had out but i think it was in the 40s.  the rogers served us chocolate cookies and lindor balls which  president rogers called "those ball things". we sat and talked a while and it was nice.  we checked the badessos again before we left but no one was there.  then we drove back to where we left sahib and left the warmth and comfort of jordan's deluxe van and entered the more rugged sahib.  we stopped at shoppers to get butter and  to have a chat with the fwendwy and neighbouwwy pharmisist who recommended a quick acting medicine for sarah. a direct deposit if you will.  on the way home kyle changed the radio to the island station that plays all christmas music and the calipso gospel song came on, u know the one that goes "a long time ago in bethlehem, so da holy bible say..."  kyle played it loud and we sang along but kyle knew ALL the words.  he said his mom bought that album when he was little and they used to listen to it all the time.  huxley fell asleep. 

when we got home we trekked in.  i helped kyle take off a sleeping huxley's coat and his own coat.  i plugged in my phone, which is something i constantly do, so no need to say it but i do.  sloan came to tell me we were going to open the christmas eve pjs presents.  adriel got black and white pjs with an astronaut on them with funny labels.  sloan got astronaut onesies.  sarah got some pjs that she knew about.  they skipped kyle this year because he has so many.  they had jammies for me, but sarah couldn't remember which box it was.  i was given a pink polka dot one, but then she realized it wasn't that one and kyle found it, it said "to a round ball of curls on christmas eve.  have a merry ho-ho. love sarah & kyle." inside were cute navy bottoms featuring fat penguins in bright sweaters.  the top had neon colourful sweaters.  i went to change into them and when i came out, only kyle  was there.  the boys had gone down to bed and sarah was in the bathroom doin her thang.  i immediately changed back into my tshirt because long sleeves are too short for me except in extreme situations.

when sarah came out the boys were called back upstairs and we sang away in a manger, primary version, and had a candle ceremony, which was nice.  i've been thinking about the peace that Christ  brings to me and how real it is.  i'm so grateful president nelson asked us to read the book of mormon by the end of the year. since my one lapse i've been doing it every day and every day i learn of Christ and fill my heart up with his word and his gospel and his peace seeps into my heart.  some days i feel it like a real physical thing.  some days it's a sharp contrast.  i'm learning.  i'm learning  to use it as a tool of peace and protection in my own life. president nelson said it is an immunization against evils in the world.  i believe in that.  i put my faith in that.  thank God for a time of year we can put away selfishness and focus on serving and loving and delighting each other.  thank God for a time of year that's for families and traditions and lighting the world with joy.  thank God for lights in the darkest time of the year.  i didn't say all of this.  this was  all behind the garbled words i mumbled out.

then the boys went to bed for reals (fr fr) and we set out to do the last of the christmas things we had to do.  i had 3 presents to wrap. huxley's giant box that housed his scooter, adriel's magic cards of infinity and kyle's cool shoes.  i wrapped adriel's in an outrageous manner.  i wrapped the 2 boxes in the same paper and put the smaller one on top of the bigger and tied it all around with red twine and then adorned it with 11 bows and named it beastie.  kyle really admired my wrapping paper with the turquoise deer on it and so i wrapped his shoes in it.  i used the peacock ribbon that katie used on my camera present.  it went perfectly.  and i zig zagged a red ribbon around the box under the bow.  on the tag i put "you liked this paper so YE SHALL HAVE IT! to: a veritable holiday treat love, the twitterpated sisters" sarah was wrapping a few too, and i looked up yoga positions for her to try to help her in her predicament and the second one turned out to be quite effective.  she used it all night long.  i also relayed to her my discovery the night before, when i was less than loose in that area myself.  i called it the diamond position.  sarah and kyle went to bed about 10 minutes before me.  i turned out all the lights and put the last present under the tree.