Christmas Eve 2009 went as well as could be expected given the fact that I'm Jewish(well, in theory, anyway) and celebrate Christmas for two reasons: 1) I'm married to a Catholic of convenience, meaning he's Catholic when it counts, and 2) together we have a 4 yr. old daughter who, like every other child with parents of different religions, believes that Santa and the reindeer are as much a part of winter as menorahs and latkes. OK, I admit it. It's too overwhelming to decide on just one set of traditions, so we're taking the easy way out and exposing her to the fun parts of both religions.

My poor husband has been sick since Wednesday with what I'm guessing is H1N1. Because he's the kind of guy who can't just stay in bed and sleep when he's sick, he meanders around the house which forces me to follow him armed with a can of Lysol, so I can spray everything he touches. Mind you, he is the only one in our family who received the vaccination(thank you, Air Nat'l Guard regulations)! I'm a firm non-believer in flu shots for this very reason...flu shots do not guarantee you will not get the flu. In fact, it's quite the contrary. I believe if you get a flu shot, it's a safe bet that you will get the flu. He has proclaimed that this is "the worst Christmas ever." Poor guy. I have to give him credit...he's being a real trooper.

We spent Christmas Eve Day doing last minute preparations with Macy: baking Santa chocolate chip cookies, writing a note to Santa to remind him of what Macy asked him for at the mall when I took her there, just in case he and his elves forget her request. Last night, we honored a family tradition of donning brand new PJs and slippers before we headed out to the front yard and began a new tradition....the sprinkling of "reindeer food" on the front lawn. Mind you, we got 8 inches of snow two days ago, so rather than sprinkle the food around the lawn, Macy dumped the baggie of oats and blue glitter in one spot. This actually made it easier for us to go back outside at 1am with the hand held Dyson to "eat" the food, so she'd think Rudolph really came over. This reminds me that I once saw these things that look like branding irons; you can use then to poke reindeer footprints in the snow. I should look for those so we can add to the effect next year.

Anyway, after we got Macy to sleep, Jace & I ventured to the basement to begin our "elf" work for the night. We had a new bike and an art easel to assemble. Of course, we didn't start doing any assembly until well after 10pm, so it was god knows what time when we finally collapsed into bed out of sheer exhaustion. Macy woke up at 2:30am and came running into our room, crying. "Daddy," she sobbed, "I had a bad dream. Santa was here, though. He put a bike by the tree." Jace redirected her back to her bed and we didn't see or hear from her again until 7:30 this morning, the absolute highlight of the day.

All in all, I'd say we were successful in our efforts to produce the illusion that Santa did come to our house. Santa left Macy a note on her new dry erase board easel thanking her for the cookies, milk and reindeer food. She immediately ran outside to see if the food was gone and marveled at the fact that it was(for the most part). She then came back into the house and made a beeline to the plate of cookies we'd left. She was delighted to see that not only had Santa eaten the cookies and left crumbs, but there was one cookie left on the plate that she was sure he'd left for her!

I have no idea where the day has gone. I wish I could say it's because we've been busy all day running from one realtive's house to another but it's almost been too quiet around here. Very few relatives called to wish Jace a Merry Christmas and because he's not feeling well, we didn't venture out to the movies or go for a drive tonight to look at lighting displays around the neighborhood like we normally would. Looking back on it, most of the holidays spent with extended family tend to be remembered as a blur. I think this year's biggest gift is the fact that it is one Christmas we will always remember clearly.