I was reading another blog, then I zoned out and when I "awoke" I was staring at the word EVE. My mind took the usual path of twists and turns where one thought leads to another. I was thinking how important Midnight Mass is to Catholics which eventually got me thinking how "Eve" is supposed to be that period before the BIG DAY but how over time it has become a holiday in and of itself. When people ask you what you are doing for Christmas, the answer is generally separated out - Christmas Eve we are doing X and Christmas Day we are doing Y (or Y & Z in our case).

As a child we always celebrated with my immediate family on Christmas Eve (often my maternal Grandmother and Great-Uncle would join us). We opened presents at home, ate a lovely meal cooked by my Mom, usually there was an argument or bickering between Grandma and Mom but all in all it was generally a swell evening. We would always go to sleep with excitement knowing that Santa would have put some goodies in our stockings (I'll never forget the year first year I saw "Santa" and her helper in the kitchen).

This year Dale and I made an addition to this holiday by starting a new tradition for The Eve of Christmas Eve - Thai Food! I generally like to have all shopping, wrapping, & cleaning pretty well finished by the close of Christmas Eve Eve - so to celebrate and not add to the chaos we decided last night to go to our favorite Thai restaurant (even better than our old favorite in San Francisco - and yes, it's in Fremont). We had our favorite dishes and told Elliot all about the food he will enjoy next year. The Christmas season is a spirit, a feeling, memories, traditions and much more that all seems to get squeezed in to two days of enjoyment (preceded by a whole month of shopping and chaos), so we are officially extending it by a day.

We just finished our Thai leftovers (yum!), I have finished baking and the Apple Spice Cake turned out GREAT (well, it looks great but we'll know for sure tomorrow) but Grandma's cookies did not measure up. I will explain my process to her this evening to find out where I went wrong.
Now while Elliot naps we will get dressed for the Christmas Eve celebrations at my Aunties. Tomorrow morning we will make our special Christmas breakfast which this year will be homemade donuts, hot cocoa and maybe some eggs. Ya know, before I sign out I was just realizing that if you are religious this three-day celebration could symbolize The Trinity...hmm, this three day Christmas just might catch-on as it appeals to sinners and non-sinners alike! Merry Christmas Eve!

I forgot to click "post" yesterday!