A Christmas Eve Post without People

 
Our Christmas Eve dinner included a house full of people. Fourteen guests is not our maximum capacity, but it does take all of our chairs to pull it off. We ate delicious Korean bulgogi made our friends the Ha Family. Their daughter Kelly played the flute and their daughter Shani led the music as we sang Christmas carols. Dan played a few songs on the banjo.  Our new friend Melanie read the Christmas story while our kids acted out the nativity scene. Our friends Staci and Kathleen stayed for extra games. It was a wonderful night, but I didn't take a single shot of our guests. At 9:54 I pulled out the camera to document the state of our happy, quiet house before finishing Christmas Day preparations.

Two crockpots of soup sat cooling on the counter. The Sees boxes and snack/treat table were still stocked and decorated by gifts from friends.

My mom always seems to remember how much I love Sees at Christmas time, particularly when I am away from California.  Let's take a closer look at that See's box to see what gets eaten first: there aren't any caramels, butterscotch, molasses chips or toffee left to be seen.

The calendar detailed our Christmas Eve and Day plans.

 My undusted (insert grimace here) computer desk was stocked with appropriate "thank you" note and treat. My Joshua always remembers the reindeer.

 And little reminders of the night were scattered around--alternative seating, a box of navel oranges, scriptures, a couple items for the nativity, games, and a hymnbook. Christmas Day came quickly after this point, and I'm so glad it did with our kids' excitement level, but this quiet point of the two-day celebration was a sweet moment of reflection I needed.