T'was the Night Before Christmas...

God's working on a White Christmas in the Dallas area. It was in the upper 60s/low 70s yesterday. Today snow!Poor Sophie has been sick with something viral (H1N1 and strep were ruled out) and has had a fever for three days now. She was her joyous self during the day and okay this evening but during her last hour up, her temperature went back up. So she took some Motrin and gladly went to bed.

We had completed all our Christmas Eve activities anyway. We had pizza for dinner. We were going to go to our friends', Dave and Liz', house and join in their tradition of making pizza and enjoying each other's company but with Sophie still sick, we didn't want to wear her out and share her bug. Neal was unwilling to part with the idea of pizza, though, so we got a veggie and cowboy.Then Sophie prepared a plate of carrots for Santa's reindeer and put it out on the back porch.Following that we got out the Nativity set and we reviewed the events of the first Christmas. We watched The Nativity (which is about 5 minutes long) and stopped it at key points to talk about and add corresponding figures to the nativity scene.Then we baked cookies from the dough she helped to make days earlier. We all got to taste one to make sure they would be good enough for Santa. While they baked in the oven, Mom and Sophie danced around the living room, dining room, and kitchen to The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy, an upbeat carol with Caribbean percussion.So with Sophie in bed and Rhys soon to be, Neal and Keri would like to wish all our friends and family a Merry Christmas and goodnight!