Candlelight Christmas Eve

Well, she moved her final piece of the advent calendar today, and put the angel in her spot at the top of the tree!

I actually had to go do some early morning pre-natal bloodwork today, but the place was empty and so I was literally in & out in less than 10 minutes, and back home in my comfy chair drinking fresh hot coffee out of a cute mug.

Then we spent a couple of hours wrapping up allll the presents for everyone in the family. Emmie was actually a great little helper, and was so sweet about doing whatever we asked of her.

She did have to take a break though to read a Christmas book to her “friends.”

I was just really feeling this purple penguin paper today, and like the way Emerson’s name fit perfectly on his little Santa hat.

She had cheese noodles for lunch and went down for her nap. Jeff got us some lunch and we finished watching “White Christmas” (and yes, I cried a little at the final 15 minutes, just like always), then I showered and we all got dressed once Emmie woke up, and we went to Grammy & Papa’s house.

They’ve been doing cooking and baking all day (or maybe for a couple of days), and although Papa wanted Emmie to help him out with his cookies, she did not want to get her little hands messy, so we just watched.

Then we all went to church for the Christmas Eve candlelight service together. It felt very strange and different this year, but it was still a special service, and I was glad we could do this together. Emmie was even brave enough to let us light her candle, and she did a really good job holding it. (Although, I did end up with some wax drips down the front of my dress.)

Once hers was lit, I made Jeff rip off my mask, in case I needed to blow out her candle super fast if she got crazy or held it too close to my hair or sweater or something. But she still did really good with it, and was so excited to just hold it up high in the air.

We went back to Grammy’s house again after church, to have sloppy Joe’s for supper. Emmie didn’t think she wanted one, but then she ate half of Grandmommie’s sandwich.

One of Mama’s friends from church got this book for Emmie and Grammy, and it was so sweet! I’ve never heard of it, but she said she read the book and thought of Emerson’s kind heart, and just had to get it for her! I can’t wait to read it together!

We stayed for a while after dinner to play and hang out, and she had so much fun and didn’t want to leave, of course. Who ever wants to leave their grandparents’ house?!

She had been playing super hero taking babies and animals to the doctor, but then at the end, she needed to see the doctor for a hurt foot. So Dr. Papa took her and bandaged up her ankle, and then she was all better in a wink!

She told me multiple times on the 30-minute car ride home that she didn’t want to go home and wanted to stay at Grammy’s house. But I reassured her over & over that we would be back tomorrow, and the whole family would be there then, and she squealed every time I told her that.

I needed one more photo of her in front of the tree, especially now with all the wrapped presents we’ve got under there, and then we headed back to her room to do the whole bedtime routine.

We read “The Shepherd on the Search” tonight, and tomorrow will be her last time searching for Sheppy this year.

It was really easy to get her to go to sleep tonight, partly because she had a short nap, partly because she ran herself ragged while playing at Grammy’s house, and partly because I reminded her she had to be good if she wanted presents tomorrow 😉