Tuesday, December 23 - Wednesday, December 24

Tuesday, December 23

A final day of Christmas preparations, and work (from home) until 2pm. Then--free. Lucia went to Kards Unlimited so she could pick out a gift for Greta (and I bought final stocking stuffers). We made and decorated gingerbread cookies. We went to the club for dinner--it takes some convincing for Andrew to get any of us to leave the house, but we did, and had a nice time. Then we watched Rudolph. We are ready for Christmas proper to begin.

Wednesday, December 24

Christmas Eve! We loaded up all the gifts and bags and both pets and headed to Cville around 1pm. Molly and Jeremy, who are spending Christmas with Jeremy's family, are staying at our house and we crossed paths when them briefly. Lucia and Andrew went for a run before we left, so Greta and I loaded all the bags into the car. 

We were halfway to Cville when Andrew realized he forgot his Christmas Eve outfit on the coat rack by the front door. "If you hadn't loaded the car, I wouldn't have forgotten it," he said in frustration, annoyed that I had "rushed" him out the door after his shower even though we'd agreed on the departure time, not realizing that blaming me for the fact that he, a grown adult man, forgot his own clothes was not going to be overlooked. I pointed out that it is not my responsibility to pack his clothes and that maybe, instead of blaming me for loading the car, he should express appreciation for the fact that I had single-handedly planned, selected, purchased, sometimes exchanged/returned, and wrapped every single gift and stocking stuffer that was currently filling the trunk, and that he had even asked me to select and purchase wrapping paper for him, laying out specifications that I fulfilled, even standing in line twice at TJ Maxx when I spotted paper I knew he'd like better AFTER I'd already checked out, and returned what I'd just purchased. "Well, I didn't know you did that," he said. We stopped at a Goodwill in Mount Pleasant so he could pick up a shirt and pair of pants.

Although this fits the endless narrative I see online of men being totally clueless about how Christmas magic gets made, I convey all this simply as an anecdote for the family archive, without resentment. It's true that I do all the Christmas gift-related planning and tasks, and it is definitely true that it is a huge undertaking, but I also love doing it. I love Christmas more than anything, and I love making Christmas magical for the kids (and us!). And Andrew bakes all the cookies and puts up all the outside decorations and carries and sets up the giant Christmas tree and always picks out wonderful gifts for me and does many other Christmassy things so he is definitely not part of the clueless-husband category at all. (And, perhaps most importantly, he doesn't say a word about the Amazon credit card bill.)

I remember, when Lucia was a tiny newborn, taking a picture of her right around Christmastime, when I realized for the first time that it was now the job of me and Andrew, her parents, to create the kind of Christmas magic that would shape her childhood just like Mom and Dad did for me and Molly. I saw it as an immense responsibility, and a privilege, and I still feel that way. If you want to deep-dive into this tangent, you can read my Christmas thoughts about our first Christmas with Lucia in the "Imagining Christmas" post from November 2009, here.

We had some time to relax in Cville before getting ready for the Orlando Christmas Eve party. Once again, Andrew was Santa, and he did, as always, a wonderful job. It was a delightful party. We left at 8:30 and went to church at St. Rita's. Back at home, we read Twas the Night Before Christmas, set up all the presents for Christmas morning, and headed to bed.