Christmas Eve - Hmmmm

Well it arrived.  Even with all my procrastinating and wishing the month would just disappear, Christmas Eve is here.  This is such a tough day for me each year and I always think perhaps the following one will be easier than the last but it doesn't work that way.  Being a northerner and having 70 degrees doesn't help.  I miss family.  Period.  I miss making the days magical.  I miss little ones filled with delight.  I miss cooking for 25 people and making pies and caroling.  It's hard.  My sweetheart tries to make it better for me, but his family really doesn't "do" things the way I used to.  Ugh.  Okay -- enough.  It's time to get out of bed and face the day.

Mister says to get dressed and we are off walking to get coffee.  It did rain a bit last night and there is dew on the trees.  It's lovely and as close to an icicle as I'm going to get.  Trying to capture it with a camera is challenging though.

Nope, not my yard, but loving the droplets for sure.  Now, onto the coffee shop where we hang out for a couple of hours working the crossword and just visiting.

The walk back home doesn't take long enough and soon we are once again in the house.  We kind of hang out for awhile and then I just can't sit in the house any longer or I will simply sit and cry so I ask to go to the mall for awhile and perhaps feel the hustle and bustle of Christmas and feel a wee bit of it's spirit.

There is a gingerbread house display that is pretty cool and I try super hard to photograph one that really strikes my fancy, but it's hard to get.  Then entire display is a replica of the streets of London.  Maybe we should just get on a plane and go there.

After the mall, we stop at the grocery store and find a few things for dinner and the rest of the week.  Mister is going to make a nice Christmas Eve dinner and I think I'm going to try and make lefse.  Perhaps going back in time 30 years while in the kitchen will help.  I get the lefse started (you can read all about THAT in THIS POST) and then just keep going.  Soon I have oatmeal raisin (RECIPE HERE) cookies for Mister and gingersnaps for me.  Okay, that helped.  Music is playing and we have decided to drive to Abilene tomorrow to be with Jen's family since our other plans fell through.

As I finish cleaning up my mess in the kitchen, my sweetheart is putting the finishing touches on our meal.

He has toasted some fresh Italian bread, poured a couple glasses of Ballast Point Pineapple Sculpin (oh yeah) and is steaming the fresh mussels he picked up.  There is also a wonderful garlic/butter/wine sauce that he has made to go over them.  Oh goodness.  They look so good and remind me of when we first started dating.  We're thinking that perhaps we have just started and new "us" Christmas Eve tradition that will sit easier in my heart.

It's time for our wonderful meal and JUST US TWO time.  Nice.  It's so delicious and we eat almost the entire loaf of bread, dunking up every drop of the wonderful juice in the bottom of the bowl.

While we sit there, I notice that baby Jesus has gone missing from my nativity.  Oh my sweet Mister.  He doesn't think that piece should be there until Christmas morning and so has removed it for the time being.  Gotta love that man of mine.

The evening is almost over and it's time for some sleep.  We have made it through the day and tomorrow will be busy indeed.  Merry Christmas all and I mean that -- I think I found some spirit.