The calm before the storm....

I woke up today to a silent house, all except for the loud buzzing of the fridge which Emily left open sometime in the early morning to get an orange. Lena slept at CJ's house so there has been no screaming at the teenager this morning. It has been a good morning so far.

Tomorrow though is Christmas Eve.....oh, the magic of that day. I LOVE Christmas Eve. There is a sparkle in every child's eye, even the teenager (we actually refer to Lena in that way now) as they are waiting for Santa to come. I don't have a ton of great memories of my Mom but, she always managed to make Christmas awesome. She would put powdered sugar and glitter on my Dad's boot and make tracks all over the living room, we always put out reindeer food and carrots and cookies. Somehow she dragged my Dad out of bed to open gifts with us.

So, this Christmas Eve we are going to do the last minute shopping, and go to Church for services, come home and bake Santa's cookies, let the kids open their Bernie gifts, read the story and then send them off to bed while Eddie and I watch It's a Wonderful Life and wait for Darlene Love on Letterman. Now will this go as ideally as I hope? Not a chance in he__, we will probably have a lot of screaming from me, and telling the kids to stay in their freaking rooms, I will probably get to the point of tears from just being tired of Tobey jumping on the bed....but they won't remember that part, I didn't really when I was that age. What they will remember is Santa ate all of the cookies and somehow he got in our house with no fireplace.

So, here is some of our Christmas traditions....Bernie the head elf brings pajamas on Christmas Eve every year while we are at Church. The kids love getting pajamas and I love how cute they look the next morning in them.

I always make the same breakfast casserole with cheese and sausage and bread and eggs that sits in the fridge all night and then it bakes while the kids open their gifts.

We stay in our pajamas the whole day, my in-laws may swing by this year and they will have to put up with us being in them while they visit with us.

So, that is all from the Holstein's. I didn't get cards out this year so here are my holiday wishes for you....

I hope that you never lose the magic that is Christmas. I hope that the child in you looks in the sky for Santa tomorrow night, just in hopes of seeing that sleigh.

I hope that you Thank God fro the gift that he gave us in his son Jesus, and that the story of his birth and life stirs something in you and that you never lose it.

I hope that you appreciate everything you have in your life and remember that not everyone is so fortunate.

I hope that 2011 is the best year ever for you. I have seen a lot of pain and sorrow in 2010 for a lot of my friends. I hope that 2011 is going to be the greatest adventure and that the ride is just crazy fun!

So that is the Holstein's card this year....Happy Holidays from the Holstein's!!!
Love, Eddie, Melissa, Lena, Alison, Edwin, Olivia, Tobey, Emily and Melody