On Christmas Eve we watched A Christmas Story with the kids. I have not seen it in many many years and I laughed so hard I cried. It was absolutely hilarious and made funnier by the shock and horror my kids experienced while watching it. Shock at seeing me laugh so hard I cried, and horror at the “child abuse” they saw before them on the screen. They laughed nervously at the bullying and the soap mouth washing and the beating that Ralphie’s friend gets for teaching him a bad word, oh, and Santa shoving kids down a slide. It was disturbing to them to watch things they have no reference for because in their world such things would never happen. We coddle kids so much today that all that stuff has been done away with-and for good reasons, don’t get me wrong. I just think that our society does way too much for it’s children and they are no longer tough or resilient because they don’t have to experience anything hard. That movie portrayed a world my kids could not even relate to. Watching their disturbance was disturbing for me. But oh how my sides ached from laughter when Flick sticks his tongue on the pole. Never. gets. old.

Speaking of hard things, Reagan got a little taste of hard when he was scheduled to work on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Luckily he was finished on Christmas Eve in time for dinner, which by sheer luck, we managed to get this year. We usually do pizza and eggnog on Christmas Eve but this year we decided to do what the rest of my family does and order Happy Terriyaki. We planned to go pick it up about 5, but Alli informed us just in the nick of time that they closed at 4:00 on Christmas Eve. Rock immediately ordered online and was the last order in before they closed up shop EARLY. My parents and sisters were left high and dry with no Happy Terriyaki dinner on Christmas Eve…….so they ended up going to a Chinese restaurant where the workers sang them Christmas carols, “Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra.” Just kidding.

No Happy Terriyaki may not seem like a big deal, but my parents and sisters feel about Chicken Terriyaki much like Ralphie’s Dad did about turkey in A Christmas Story. They are still new to Boise and it isn’t quite home yet for them, so Happy Terriyaki, something they know and love from Washington, is an important part of Christmas Eve. The Wesels were in for a little Christmas miracle of their own. Lucky for them, we had also watched A Christmas Carol that day and I was feeling the Christmas Spirit, (which spirit- past, present or future, I couldn’t say) so we shared our Terriyaki with them. They typically eat about 1 dinner apiece and they had to share two dinners for 4 of them, but we figured maybe the magic of the manora light or the miracle of the loaves and fishes would kick in on their behalf.

We enjoyed our Happy Terriyaki, eggnog, and Nativity reading-performed now days by the Toys From Libby’s Bedroom theater group.

Levi was particularly wild this year and that made for much craziness the rest of the evening. Usually they will at least hold still for a picture after they open their Christmas Eve gifts, but not this year. I thought this was supposed to get better as they get older.

I must be getting old because I didn’t even get a picture of the reading of “The Night Before Christmas” So we will just put in an old one, back when they were all small and cute.