Christmas Eve

Cameron woke up Christmas Eve in high spirits and was running full speed all day long. Timo on the other hand was having an off day and spent much of the morning in time-outs...but managed to pull it together by mid-day and end on a high note.
We started by opening our last door on our advent calender. It's the biggest door and the kids have been waiting all month long to open it and see baby Jesus!
We got ready and headed downtown, as per our tradition, to see the big Christmas tree in Union Square, the gingerbread castle in the Westin Hotel, watch the ice skaters, visit Santa in Macy's (which means riding escalators) and have a nice lunch at Scala's Bistro.




It was getting late in the afternoon by the time we finished lunch and the kids were reaching their melting down point...getting back to the car proved to be a bit challenging. We passed a street performer singing Santa Baby and the kids were mesmerised...seeming to forget how upset they were. To our good fortune, he gave the kids a candy cane which made everything better. We got to the car, buckled in and on our way home without one tear...singing Santa Baby all the way. Yeah!
We got home, took a short nap and left for our Christmas Eve Service at church. I don't have any pictures because I was walking around with Timo the whole time. They didn't have child care and Timo doesn't have the attention span to sit still for an hour...so we cruised the halls of the church, drew some pictures, read the Christmas Story, etc...
We came home, put cookies out for Santa and Young read the Christmas Story from the kid's bible before bedtime.
The kids were all nestled in their beds, visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads...so Santa could get right to work! We try to unpack and assemble almost everything that night so we can break down boxes, clean up and have less to do in the morning...