Christmas Eve Day

Merry Christmas Eve day my friends! The mood in the cabin was gay and merry and quite full of anticipation. There is just something magic about Christmas Eve day - all day! This is true whether you are a monkey or a person.

Early in the day, I heard Marie, Miffy and Martha disagreeing on what snack to leave for Santa that night. Marie wanted to make ladylocks because they are absolutely her favorite cookies, while Martha felt strongly that orange cookies would be the best choice. However - Miffy matter of factly declared that Santa would be in need of a more healthy snack so after several more minutes of bickering they finally settled on orange cookies and a banana. I must say that Marie really, really does not like being told what to do, but even she realised that there was not enough time to make ladylocks. Maybe she would be more prepared next year and make them ahead of time.

On this day more than any other, the little monkeys seem to get along better than usual. Christmas Eve day brought out the best in them. The cabin was noticeably cheerier and bustling with preparations. Molly, Missy, Mildred, Meg and Meredith were all at the kitchen table cutting snowflakes out of white paper. They wanted to decorate each and every window in the cabin.

There was a friendly contest between them to see who could make the most intricate and beautiful snowflake. For a moment, I was sure that there was going to be trouble when Meg, our artsy child, started to make fun of Missy's snowflakes saying that they were ugly and the pattern looked more like a box than a snowflake, but then as if by magic, Meg seemed to think better of this. (Wouldn't you if Santa was watching to see if you were being naughty or nice?)

Meg grabbed the snowflake, praising it all the way to the basement where she proudly displayed it on a back window (where practically no one would see it!) Hmmmmmm.

As the day wound down - each little monkey got a bath and put on their new Christmas jammies. How sweet they smelled and how their fur glistened as they lined up in front of the fireplace to have their picture taken by their empty stockings. Afterward, they ran off to their beds to see who could stay awake long enough to hear Santa and the reindeer land on our roof.

Morley and I finished up a few dishes and then sat down to enjoy a few precious moments of peace and quiet. I could hear whispering and giggling coming from the bedrooms and after about an hour of this - Morley told them in no uncertain terms, that Santa would not come if they were awake. After that, we heard no more sounds. How nice - they all finally fell asleep - or so we thought.

Come back again soon to see what happened during the night.

My love,
Mabyn