Christmas Eve was the best, and sadly I have few pictures to remember it by since I inadvertently deleted photos of our company (sorry to Aunt Elinor, Uncle Bob, and Erin) and then inadvertently set the camera to a non-photo taking setting (no, not the "off" button). But here's what I've got:
Matthew's new trick is to take off his socks and put them in his mouth.
Elinor, Bob, and Erin were there, I swear, visiting from LA. Isabella took them on walk to the creek. We feasted on Beef Daube Provencal, beet salad, and caramel pear and cranberry pudding cake! We sang carols around the piano! We ate Sees Candies and opened presents! It! Was! Lovely! But not one photo.
After dinner, the Hern family departed, and Nana and Isabella made and decorated cookies for Santa. And then it was time to prepare for our big family trip, something I'd been looking forward to for months. Where to, you ask? Why to the North Pole, of course!
Isabella's favorite Christmas movie is the Polar Express. I got the idea from a website, a few months back, to make your own homemade Polar Express experience, but added some details of my own. We started Isabella's nighttime routine as usual, bath first. This is when Nana and Papa, said their good-byes to her, and pretended to leave to go back to Mill Valley. Really, they ducked into the office to change into their pajamas. While Isabella was bathing, I made hot chocolate as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars and poured it into a thermos. Mom popped popcorn and Dad was in charge of Matthew. Mark sneaked Isabella passed my parents and brought her to her room where a new nightgown was waiting for her on her bed (the little girl character in the movie wore one). Mark puts Isabella to bed every night, so he followed their usual routine of reading a bed time story, which was, of course, The Polar Express. (Mark told me later, she wasn't really interested in listening to the book that night, because she wanted to hear something different). On the very last page, I taped a golden ticket inside the book with her name of it and had extras for the rest of us.
Mark escorted Isabella back out to the kitchen where the rest of us were waiting in our pj's. I download the Polar Express soundtrack, and had that playing when she walked in. A new bathrobe (the boy character in the book/movie wears one) with a bell in the pocket was hanging on the hook near the door, along with her Spiderman slippers.
Mark assumed the role of the conductor and punched all the tickets with a hole punch.
After getting her dressed in her cozy clothes, we headed outside to the Polar
Express--a big, blue Ford Club Wagon Chateau (Mark's school van), whose engine was huffing and puffing. We boarded the PE and drove around Napa looking at Christmas lights. Isabella was so excited, referring to Mark the entire time as "conductor". And she was over the moon when the conductor let her disembark to get a close up look at some of the lights. (The following pictures were taking by my Dad with his phone.)
The best part of the whole trip, however, was when we pulled into our driveway on our return home. One of the songs from the movie PE was playing, a song where two children are singing about Christmas. Isabella knows the words by heart and started to sing along with it. She sang with such expression and sincerity--it was hard for me to even look at her, because it made me cry. She was so angelic; she truly sang her heart out. So there we all sat, in the dark, listening to Isabella sing. Although I wish I had a video of it, it probably wouldn't have been the same because she may have been a bit self conscious. After her song, we unloaded from the van, said our real good-byes to Nana and Papa and went inside to watch The Polar Express. She stayed in her bathrobe and slippers the whole time.
The video below is one that I took on Christmas morning on our way to my parents' house. I had her sing the song again, and it was great, but not quite the same. Still, I'm so glad we have a recording of her sweet little voice.
To see the video, click on the blue hyperlink of the email post's title "Christmas Eve". That will take you directly to the blog, where you can play the video. Enjoy!
