Christmas Eve Festivities

Well it's Christ Eve and I'm already done shopping for presents, got all my Christmas card sent and shopped for all the food. Usually I don't get the cards done and shopping for presents are all done by Thanks Giving. So this year was a little different but enjoyable.

I am having a hard time staying away from the sweets. I've done really well until today when I ate a coconut bar that had fruit and nuts in it and I'm pretty sure it was held together by corn syrup or something sugary. And I took one bite of a brownie but whoever made them obviously forgot the sugar. It tasted terrible which was just as well for me. I'm going to have to pray harder to be able to keep my abstinence or I will be lost. Holiday are especially hard.

Tuesday Joe and I cleaned out our respective rooms so Steve and Michelle could move in. It was a Herculean task for me. It took about 6 or 7 hours to get my room done and there are still some things I don't know what I'm going to do with. I did keep the most important parts of my art supplies and my sewing machine with the two sets of drawers that hold my supplies for it. I'm trying to get everything set up on my tables, now, but I don't have enough room with the printers on the table where I want to put my things from my "desk" downstairs. Joe has gone to the Temple with Daniel so I am here alone and can't do it myself. Oh well, I need to study my scriptures anyway.

I am looking forward to tonight's festivities. Mostly I get to just sit back and watch. The pageant is going to include about 4 or 5 angels, four Nephites and Samuel the Lamanite (we are doing the Christmas story from the perspective of the Book of Mormon), several shepards and sheep and one donkey played by David. He's such a good sport. He plays the donkey every year. Seth is going to be the narrator. It should be a little better presentation this year as most of the kids are 4 to 7 years old and can pretty much do their parts alone (without parental help that is.) Melissa organizes this every year which is a real blessing. I would like to print out the lyrics to several Christmas carols that we could sing as part of the program but I'll need some help doing that I think. We'll have to see. I may be able to figure that one out for myself.

Anyway it looks like it's going to be a fun night. And tomorrow is going to be even better although I know what I'm getting. Joe doesn't want to surprise me which makes me a little sad. I don't like to know what I'm getting but I do like what I am getting. I found some knobs for my cupboard doors (four packs of ten each) and I also picked out two photo albums for my pictures at Costco. I'm excited to see if Joe likes what I got for him and the kids as well. Michelle, Jenn and I wrapped about 40 gifts for the family. It's a good thing I start shopping for Christmas in early summer. We couldn't afford this many gifts if we left it all until December.

Well I need to get on with my day,

Love Loves!