Christmas Eve

It's almost here! And how quickly it came this year. The traditional Christmas Eve in our family hasn't changed in years. We snack all day long and have a Christmas Eve buffet in the evening. We always have ham, shrimp, beef sticks and assorted cheeses, veggies, and spreads. Everyone fills his or her plate and we sit watching two movies. One is "A Christmas Carol" with George C. Scott as Scrooge. This movie has the best Tiny Tim of any of the versions of this story. After that, we watch the Allistair Sims old version of the same movie.

When the movies are over, we sit around drinking wine (or whatever), listen to Christmas carols and look at the tree and the fire, usually remembering Christmases past. Then we head off to bed and wait for Santa.

We have a lot of Santas decorating our house at Christmas. This one is by far my favorite. This carved wooden Santa stands about four feet tall. The detail is wonderful with his lovely robe and his hands full of toys.

Note the wonderful detail of his facial features:

As with every decoration we have, this one also has a background story. My husband purchased him in Sarasota, Florida when he was attending a meeting there. He had him shipped to his office so that I would be surprised. Santa arrived in a package made from taping two boxes together. My husband removed the tape and pulled off the top box. To his surprise, hundreds of styrofoam peanuts came pouring out. He was wearing a wool suit and the peanuts clung to his body and fell all over the carpet. He called his administrative assistant for help and when she quit laughing, she helped him gather all the peanuts. It must have been quite a sight, and his assistant laughed about it for years to come.

I hope that you enjoy your own Christmas Eve traditions tonight. And I hope all is calm and bright at your house. Oh, and I hope Santa loosely defines naughty.

GOD BLESS US, EVERY ONE