Anyway, Christmas Eve. At our house on Christmas Eve there are the standard last minute preparations. The most important of which includes glazing and baking the Ham.
Our ham glaze is a non-reciped mixture of 'Bit on the side Apricot sauce", Orange Juice and brown sugar heated together to dissolve the sugar and then poured over the Ham and basted over and over as we bake the yummy flavour in over about 2 hours. This year we happened to have some fresh Apricots so I put those on as well.
We have a nice together family dinner of a Roast generally Chicken although we'd prefer it to be lamb! With gravy, stuffing, roast vegetables and fresh corn on the cob! I really like this as a tradition as there is the potential for the night to be rushed, stressed and full-on but knowing this dinner is coming we are sorted to sit down calmly.
After dinner we wait. This year we played outside and also spent some time inside watching the Norad site to see what Santa was doing. Once we can see that dusk is setting in the kids and I head out to check out the neighbourhood light displays. There's not a heck of a lot where we are and I recommend a pre-check without kids a few nights before Christmas so you can end the trip on a high. This year was Wills first- to be honest I didn't expect him to be out so late (10pm) so young but due to circumstance he had a late sleep and was a chirpy as a chirpy thing so we took him along.
When we got home we checked Norad again, the kids did their teeth and then after the big kids put their personally purchased presents under the tree and then headed for bed.
Before Les and I hit the hay we set up the video camera to record Santa's Visit. This is some thing we have done for years. Santa of course is incredibly fast so that you can't even see him but you do manage to see the presents as they build up under the tree, it's amazing. Unfortunately it's recorded on VHS so I can't upload it but now that we have a DVD HD recorder perhaps we'll be able to digitize and upload it. Santa does the stockings first I believe and then the tree, he wishes us Merry Christmas as he leaves and if you listen closely you can hear the sleigh bells jingle.
Our ham glaze is a non-reciped mixture of 'Bit on the side Apricot sauce", Orange Juice and brown sugar heated together to dissolve the sugar and then poured over the Ham and basted over and over as we bake the yummy flavour in over about 2 hours. This year we happened to have some fresh Apricots so I put those on as well.
We have a nice together family dinner of a Roast generally Chicken although we'd prefer it to be lamb! With gravy, stuffing, roast vegetables and fresh corn on the cob! I really like this as a tradition as there is the potential for the night to be rushed, stressed and full-on but knowing this dinner is coming we are sorted to sit down calmly.
After dinner we wait. This year we played outside and also spent some time inside watching the Norad site to see what Santa was doing. Once we can see that dusk is setting in the kids and I head out to check out the neighbourhood light displays. There's not a heck of a lot where we are and I recommend a pre-check without kids a few nights before Christmas so you can end the trip on a high. This year was Wills first- to be honest I didn't expect him to be out so late (10pm) so young but due to circumstance he had a late sleep and was a chirpy as a chirpy thing so we took him along.
When we got home we checked Norad again, the kids did their teeth and then after the big kids put their personally purchased presents under the tree and then headed for bed.
Before Les and I hit the hay we set up the video camera to record Santa's Visit. This is some thing we have done for years. Santa of course is incredibly fast so that you can't even see him but you do manage to see the presents as they build up under the tree, it's amazing. Unfortunately it's recorded on VHS so I can't upload it but now that we have a DVD HD recorder perhaps we'll be able to digitize and upload it. Santa does the stockings first I believe and then the tree, he wishes us Merry Christmas as he leaves and if you listen closely you can hear the sleigh bells jingle.
Do you remember as a child going to bed on a school night during the summer, especially in the first week or so back after the holidays? You could see that the sun was still high outside, the bedroom was light as day, and you could hear people still enjoying the day outside your window. It was like fun and excitement was just on the other side of the wall but you couldn't get to it. I think Christmas Eve feels like that, it's so close but yet so far.... and even though you know it's just there you still have to go to sleep to get to it.
♥
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