Christmas Eve To-Do-List

What Christmas Eve looked like for me...minus the food preparation and dish washing and basic parenting that just happens.  

1.  Go through the stash of goodies we have collected and outgrown and pick out gifts for our security guards to give to their children for Christmas.   

2.  Listen to a grown man giggle when he is radioed to come to the security gate and to be handed toys for his daughter.

3.  See their love for one another as they radio their coworkers to come and meet us.

4.  See a man smile big with something as simple as 2 small balls.

5.  Go shopping on the street to give our local vendors some holiday cash.

6.  Make your shopping list of who to shop from next so everyone gets some business.

7.  Shop on credit...not a good idea.  "You take it.  You can pay me later."   They will get you every time!

8.  Share jokes, laughter, and love with young men you are beginning to really care about.

9.   Let your 9- year- old bake on her own while you are not at home....she did great!

10.   Put your 12- year- old in charge of the appetizer...so yummy!

11.  Christmas Carol at the hospital while handing out rice, beans, oil, Bibles, and candy canes.  

12.  Watch your children give their Christmas hats and jingle bells away to children they see in the hospital.

13.  Reading the Christmas story with a family as they cradle their newborn son and hear their celebrations as we read about the baby boy who came to save us from our sins.

14.  Watch as your sister in Christ has the perfect opportunity to partake in the ministry she has had on her heart for months.

15.  Serve cold chili you made just for your husband and watch him graciously eat it.

16.  Participate in the reading of Luke 2 with children filling in as shepherds and wise men.

17.   Confess your sins before  communion.

18,   Watch another baby play with your children's Fisher Price Nativity set.

19.  Feast and laugh with folks that work so hard.

20.  Giving "gag gifts" to the ladies I work with.

21.  Wish  Nana a Happy Birthday.  

22.  Facetime gift opening with grandparents.

23.   Watch your children's authentic joy from giving and receiving gifts.

24.  Watch your child use her new roller skates while wearing her new "co-long-nee-ul"  (colonial) costume, while playing the harmonica.

25. Watch your children give of their own possessions to others.

26.  Watch your big ole boy love on his little sisters.

27.   Read from the Advent book as a family.

28.  Have a nice fire in the fireplace.

29.  Message your siblings.

30.  Go to sleep tired but with a smile on your face.