Sssh.. Don't tell the children.
I'm taking a chance putting it on the blog, but the kids aren't allowed on the computer without permission and supervision, and I had to tell somebody.
I just noticed I have never blogged about Star Night, which is a Glaring Omission, so here is an excerpt of a post I wrote for a moms' list that tells what it is.
Every year, dh and I secretly plan an evening to take the kids to look at lights. We call it Star Night, and I make sure to have some special cookies and hot chocolate in travel mugs to take with us. On Star Night the kids go to bed as usual, not knowing that Tonight Is The Night. Around thirty minutes after lights out, we rush their rooms and hustle them out in their pajamas and robes, plop them in the van, cover them with blankets and hand them their goodies. Then we pile in, put some Christmas music on the CD player, and head out to look at the lights. The kids love it because they know it's coming, but they don't know when!
Thanks to the aforementioned moms' list, we have maps and directions this year. I am oh-so-organized. And since we are on vacation and can sleep in tomorrow morning, we can go Farther Afield in our search for lights.
We got the children new slippers so their feet will be cuddly under their blankets in the van.
I got Pepperidge Farms special party cookies. 'Cause it's a party. Now all I have to do is surreptitiously set aside the Christmas music, put the kids to bed early, and boil water for cocoa.
Hee hee! I love Christmas.
2 comments:
What wonderful memories you are creating! This is such a special thing you are doing. I only wish I had done the same when my girls were little. Nowadays I would just interrupt them from reading Wuthering Heights and whatever it is Clara's reading at the moment. And it would be around nine-thirty since they go to bed at nine now. I guess they will have their own memories of other things we did. I just found your tradition so touching. God bless!
I love that tradition! Looking at lights has always been one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season, but the last couple of years, we haven't been able to squeeze it in.
I wonder if there's a way we could do a Star Night? Like Firefly (who seems to be my twin in so many ways!) my kids have a later bedtime and look forward to their late-night reading.
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