"But it's December the 24th... "

And a part of me does long to be up north-

with my parents, having our traditional seafood and gifts, popping open Christmas crackers and wearing the silly crowns.

I remember when more family spent Christmas eve in Ohio, too. One year, my uncle Tye crept downstairs in the wee hours of the morning to hang his own set of stockings for everyone. Mine had a velveteen rabbit inside. It was magical.

I think I've grown to love Christmas Eve even more than Christmas Day.

This year was no exception. Despite a hurried start to the day (last minute errands- boo!) we all made it to the 4:00 service at church. It was lovely, as usual. My favorite part this year was at the very beginning, when an older gentleman from our church (who recently lost his wife, incidentally) got up to sing an a capella rendition of "C is for the Christ child." It was by far the most moving music I'd heard through all of advent. And we have a lot of great music around here.

After the service, we shared our favorite light display with friends. It is an amazing house with lights all over the yard and a garage filled with animatronic snowmen, angels, Peanuts, Santas, and more. Last year, the family took a year off, so we were very excited to visit again.

Of course, that put us behind a bit as far as making dinner. My kids ended up making a bag of Combos in the car the bulk of their Christmas Eve feast. (Don't worry, they had more than that- though not much more!) I began to feel frazzled, but then I stopped to remember that it was NOT doing everything perfectly that made the night special.

So, we sprinkled magic Reindeer food,

set out cookies for Santa (and more food for those hard-working deer),

watched the Grinch,

and grew a teensy bit impatient waiting on Daddy to finish wrapping.

Finally, it was time for our gifts for each other.

Our girls get the good stuff from Santa on Christmas morning, but they get PJs and books from Mommy & Daddy the night before. This year, I cheated a little and threw in a pillow pet, too. It was a big hit.

Big Sister was super excited about her Pillow Pet, too. It's a pink and purple unicorn. Fitting. You can see it in the next photo:

This was my favorite moment of the evening. Daddy, in all of his frantic running around in the few hours he had to himself before Christmas, picked out The Jesus Bible Storybook for the girls, just from him. And he read it with them before they put on their new pajamas and got ready for bed.

Big Sister was actually in a hurry to go to sleep, lest Santa pass us by. Little Sister put up her usual resistance, but was also soon asleep, snuggled with her ladybug.

Daddy and I stayed up until 1:30, getting the final preparations together for the next day. It was a little exhausting, but it also provided some of the first quiet holiday moments we were able to share together in weeks. We kept checking for snow, doubting the forecasters and wondering if we should have (not that we could have) gone up to Cincinnati.

But, though a part of my heart will always be in Ohio on Christmas Eve, there was really no other place I would have rather been than right here, with my sweet family.

And magical Christmas moments like this.