'Twas the night before Christmas

So with Christmas merely "one sleep" away, it was time to get dressed for the children's mass. This year we went to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Urbana. We even managed to make it to the 5pm service. Although cold, Alex wanted to wear her "beautiful dress" - actually an easter dress that is definitely not for a mid-west winter! A very different service to our usual catholic/presbyterian effort - no sermon or eucharist.
Here is Alex dressed for church - Sebastien is waiting for us to get ready before he gets changed.

Alex really got into the singing, her favorite "Gloria in Excelsius" - and continued singing the next day at home. She also loved lighting the candle to sing "Silent Night" - she was allowed to hold the candle by herself, with Daddy keeping a close eye on her.


When we got home, Sebastien got into his Christmas sleeper and Alex changed out of her "beautiful dress" - into something suitable for dinner. We had calls from Australia and a visit from Paul and Emily - whom we used to babysit every Tuesday evening for a couple of hours while her daddy lectured.
Finally, after everyone had left and no more calls came from Australia, we did the final window in the Advent calendar. Picture us going "where's #1?" and Alex "here" to her telling us which ones she ate and which ones she had to give to her daddy (suffering bad choice consequences)...Obviously it took us a long time to progress from 1 through 24. Here we are with the finished calendar (Santa takes the empty calender each year and puts more chocolates in it for us to buy again next year - the ultimate in recycling!) .

Then it was time to read "'Twas the night before Christmas" before bedtime. Alex and Daddy had baked Chocolate Brownies for Santa during the day (sampling some of course) and put out a slice on Alex's plate with an Australian beer for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.

After a full day, it was almost 10pm before Alex was asleep - and that was even with a 5pm (not 7pm) church service.