Christmas Eve Eve

Christmas Eve Eve is here, which is a thing, by the way.  Madison is so ready for the day, but for the first time acknowledged that time does indeed fly.  For Daddy, this season of awesomeness starts around September with apples and pumpkins, and coasts through Thanksgiving with all things Christmas for a couple months.  And if you look at it on paper, we did quite a bit.  Yet, it still seems like we're already here and where did the time go?  Looking back on this season, we certainly did enough.  It's juts that here we are already.  And soon, it'll be next year when we do it all over again.  I suppose that's the the thing about this time of year that's so unsettling:  when it's over, there's a keen awareness of how time does go by quickly, despite our best efforts.  It's a unit of measurement:  tick, tick, tick.  Each one is the same, but what we do with each one quite different.  In the end, it's the most valuable thing we have. 

And there's not much of it left this year, or until Christmas.  Case in point:  Jingle Bell and Snowflake have already left us for the year, with a note and a pair of pajamas for Madison as a gift.  She's wearing them in the picture above.  She also got yet another Tsum-Tsum, and the streak is ongoing!

The rain today was tremendous, a downpour of large proportions.  This could have been snow had things been timed a bit differently, but that's okay.  That was another thing we were blessed with this Christmas season:  snow.  It was a winter wonderland, and something special.

This morning Madison and Daddy were out doing a bit of last-minute shopping for Mommy.  We didn't go far, and were glad to get back.  To quote Charlton Heston from "Planet of the Apes:"  "It's a madhouse!  A madhouse!"

We did go out once more though:  we had to get a refillable popcorn bucket for Aunt Shain, so we went to the movies to pick on up, and hey, why not see a movie while we were there?  Sadly, the two CHRISTMAS themed movies we wanted to see were already GONE.  One of them, "The Man Who Invented Christmas" never even lasted a week.  So neither of those was an option, so we instead watched, "Jumanji:  Welcome to the Jungle."

Madison liked this movie, although Daddy liked the original much better.  Madison prefers this one better though, so it's a tie.  Mommy wasn't ready to compare the two so much!  Anyway, it had some fun moments, and some awkward moments too.  On the whole, it was a good movie.  I'm not understanding how this ancient board game could transform into a video game cartridge, but for what it was, it was enjoyable.  The theater, by the way, was absolutely packed.  The lines there were huge, and it was the most crowded we've seen things in a while.  The rain and Christmas season no doubt played a bit part in that.

We got home, and we did some more wrapping today.  Lots of wrapping goes on before the big day, but we've been doing it along the way, so it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could be.  In fact, tomorrow there will be very little wrapping at all, which is somewhat unusual for Christmas Eve.  It'll actually be a quiet day in that respect.

Tonight, we saw a few more Christmas specials, including "Olaf's Frozen Adventure," but it was pretty much time to go to bed early.  Tomorrow is going to be a big, big day, starting with two services in the morning at KidPak.  For that reason alone, it's time to hit the sack, and say to all a goodnight!