Twas the Night Before Christmas and I was Scrambling

This year was our turn to have my step daughters (11 and 14) for Christmas Eve.  We have barely seen them this year (long back-story I won’t get into) and we were really happy to have some time with them.  

We didn’t decorate our house since we are moving in a couple of weeks and the thought of having to undecorated AND pack was just too much.  We wrapped up a gift for each of the girls and a gift for Lil B and placed them on the floor near one of our house plants.  It didn’t look like much, but given the situation we felt it was completely appropriate.  

At around 6pm on the 24^th DSD 11 asked me if Santa would still come, since we didn’t have a tree?  My mouth dropped, I responded with a hesitant “yes” and immediately pulled Brandon aside to discuss what we were going to do as we hadn’t planned on needing to have that element of surprise this year.  

So what is a person to do so late in the game?  You don’t want to disappoint a child, but you don’t have many options on Christmas Eve.  I decided to make a card from Santa and Mrs. Claus telling them that Santa valued family time and wanted to send the three kids and us to Great Wolf Lodge for a weekend so we could spend more time together!  I thought the idea was brilliant. 

In the middle of the night Brandon placed a strand of lights on our lovely house plant, placed out their stockings and we realized we didn’t have a stocking for Lil B...so being the innovative dad he is, he grabbed a can of formula and some jars of baby food from the pantry and placed them around the plant.  

When I came down in the morning I couldn’t stop laughing. I only wish I had a picture of the formula on top of the boxes!  

Crisis averted and Christmas saved...definitely one to remember.