Christmas Eve!

Today was not at all what I expected it to be. Jeff and I had planned a fun day with the kids. We had activities planned from morning until we opened our Christmas jammies that night. The day started off normal enough. We took the kids to lunch then to see the new movie Annie.

During the movie, Jeff received a text that threw our day off. Daisy, our jersey cow, finally had her calf! We had been waiting for days. In fact, we had days where we had plenty of time to deal with this, but today, when we had so much planned, was the day Daisy decided to deliver. Jeff left half-way through the movie because our neighbor (who luckily noticed the birth) said that he felt the calf was struggling. The rest of us stayed to finish the movie then rushed home to see the new addition. The calf seemed to be in a bit of shock. He wasn't moving much. In fact, he didn't stand on his own for a couple days. This is our first time with all of this so we were all pretty anxious that the calf eat. Jeff tried to milk Daisy, but that was an adventure in and of itself. Needless to say, we (and by "we" I really mean Jeff) had a learning curve ahead of us! Still, Jeff stuck with it and the calf has done really well in the days since. I love my husband. I love that he has a desire to learn these skills. I can't say that it is something I've been overly interested in; yet his desire and determination has inspired me to try new skills as well. For better or worse, it is hard for me to try new things. I don't handle failure or frustration very well, but if I never try, I'll never know.

Well we still tried to maintain our Christmas Eve traditions, even with the chaos of the new calf. While Jeff was working with the calf, the kids, Grandma Penny, Katie and I set out our luminaries. This was the warmest year yet! In fact, there wasn't any snow on the ground. It has been a "warm" December and, although I hate to admit it, I was a little disappointed that we may not have a white Christmas. 

After we lit the luminaries, I busied myself with preparing our traditional "Bethlehem" dinner (eating foods that can be found in the Bible...with a few modern additions) while the kids went out to see if they could help Jeff with the calf. Finally, everyone came in to eat. 

It was later than we had planned it to be, but we still read the Christmas story in Luke 2. It was a short and simple Christmas Eve devotional this year, but I think it has been the best. I know I've heard this story for many years, but it helps me to reflect on that first Christmas...and the first gift of Christmas - love! (John 3:16) Finally, the kids were able to open their Christmas jammies.

After that, I was ready to shoo the kids off to their bedrooms so Santa could come fill their stockings, but Jeff had another little surprise. He had me open a gift he had bought for me...that benefited the whole family. Chinese wishing lanterns! I loved it! We all got to write a wish we wanted for the New Year then we lit the little candles and watched them float away. 

Now we were ready to send the kids off to bed. Actually, Laurin had to go back to Ogden because she had to work the next day. The boys went down stairs to settle into their fort. Each year, they've built a fort to spend the night in on Christmas Eve. The boys actually built this fort on Sunday and made improvements to it all week long. It has been their biggest one yet!

Once the kids were all "nestled in bed", Santa was able to come and fill their stockings. Even though Daisy threw a curve ball, we still enjoyed our chaotic Christmas Eve.