Christmas Eve Moments to Remember

We attended the Lessons and Carols service at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve. Hoping that it was family friendly as most churches here do not have a creche (nursery), the Nelson family made it for all of 20 minutes of the service, and I am being quite generous on that time estimate. Seems the little voices of B and S, as angelic as they are, were not quite in tune with those of the choir. Nonetheless, being in that most holy place, surrounded by the beauty and majesty of the cathedral and knowing that we were all there to celebrate the miraculous birth of the Christ child, made it Christmas to us. I will never forget sharing that moment, albeit brief, as a family.

Here we are on our way into the service:

and on our way out:

Once we got home, we set out with our pre-Father Christmas preparations. Here is B perfecting his working knowledge of the role of serving gentlemen to the king, or in this case, Father Christmas, as he is testing those cookies to make sure they are not in any way tainted. He took this job very seriously:

I love this photo of S (notice B's hands have not let go of that cookie):

And here is G working on a collective letter to Father Christmas. This is something he does every year:

S has perfected the camera-ready smile:

Preparations have been finished, boys have been bathed and the Christmas story has been read . . . and now off to bed!

Another moment I have to record for posterity . . . I went in to check on the boys a good hour after we had tucked them in, B was in a sweet slumber as was S, but as I went over to G's bed, he was laying perfectly still, covers pulled up and nestled right under his little chin, and as I went to kiss his tender cheek, his eyes quickly popped open. He looked so worried because he was just too excited to fall asleep and he just knew Father Christmas was getting close to our home. He knew his precise location because we spent a good half-hour tracking him on Google Earth (thank you Papa)! He went downstairs for one last location check and then fell fast asleep. Another sweet moment that I don't want to forget!