Twas the Night Before Christmas

We started our day just after lunch when we delivered our cookies to the neighborhood firefighters

and police station.

Can I just say how little your kids look when they are sitting in a fire truck? I wonder if moms of 40-yr-olds feel the same way. Also, you should know that police stations are not actually manned on the weekend. We thought we were going to have better luck because we were doing it during the day as opposed to the evening like we normally do. Nope. They have this little box phone that you call to dispatch on. When Christopher told them why were there the dispatcher thought that was so cute, she had an officer come back to the station to meet us. I should also add that I was not going to do this this year. The actual cookie baking usually becomes such a chore that I don't enjoy it. However, both boys asked on several occasions when we would be going to see the firemen, so we picked our simplest recipes and enjoyed the whole process.

Next up? Church. The boys sang for the Christmas Eve services at 3:00 and 5:00.

They had 120 kids. Wow! We all went to the 3:00 service and then left when the Noah was done at 5:00. But wait, didn't I just say both boys sang two services? Well, that was the plan. Unfortunately, nobody checked with Benjamin to make sure this fit into his schedule. He got up there to sing the second time but kept dozing off in his chair as mama carried him off and he slept in her arms in the choir room until Noah was done singing.We picked up some dinner and headed to Grandpa and Grandma's to eat. Grandpa had a bad cold so he didn't go to church with us.

Had to say goodbye to our pal "Sunshine". Yes, he is in the fridge. We figured maybe this was his way of preparing to head back to the frigid North Pole??? (Mommy and Daddy also requested that he spend the off season with the Benson's "Rocky" because Sunshine need to step it up in the coolness of revealing himself category. (Part One. and Part Two.)
Time for "The Night Before Christmas".
Everybody picked out the cookie they Santa would like best.

While visions of sugar plums danced in their hands, Santa got to work in delivering his presents. Ironically, while he worked, he kept an eye on the NORAD video of where in world he was currently working. We've never done this. Have you? It was pretty fun! We have a couple of questions about his flight patterns because we didn't think going from Rio de Janeiro to Greenland and back to Sao Paulo was really the best use of his time. But, I guess he has been doing this a lot longer than I have been paying attention, so I should give him the benefit of the doubt.
Because daddy was such a stickler in starting our wrapping earlier in the week, we were done in record time this year. 10:15 and we were tucking ourselves in to bed. Maybe that wasn't such a bad plan - it sure beats trying to enjoy Christmas when you didn't go to bed until 2:00am. Can't wait until the morning!

I also want to share my friend Whitney's site. I think this is the cutest idea ever and I cannot imagine how excited kids would be to actually see Santa in their own house. I thought it was just a photoshop trick but her husband actually dressed up. Love it. And yes, they are the same Bensons with the cool elf. They just know how to put the magic in Christmas. :)