My second favorite day of the year :)

Tomorrow is my second favorite day of the year (after Valentine's Day)... Christmas Eve! Call me crazy, but I think I like Christmas Eve better than Christmas Day! I guess I just love the anticipation of Christmas being the next day. I hate the Christmas is over way faster than most people would like it to be... and when it's over, it's over- life goes back to normal shortly after! :( (My decorations will stay up at least until New Year's though because I like them so much... snowmen and snowflakes can also double as 'winter decorations right?'

I also have a lot of special memories of going to my aunt's house on Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family. I don't really remember what we did, but my aunt Chris always had something fun for Lissa and I to do... usually a craft project :) and, she always had amazing food for us! (although sometimes we were her gineau pigs and it wan't always a positive thing!)

We've also always gone to church on Christmas Eve, which I've always loved too! In the years since we left Nova Scotia where all my family is, we've always made Christmas Eve a relaxing day (or evening I guess since usually some or all of us usually have to work) and after coming home from church we eat a ton of appetizers (instead of dinner) and just relax, stay up late, watch Christmas specials on TV and/or play games together :)

Anyway, I just wanted to give a little tribute to Christmas Eve since it's tomorrow!! I'm looking forward to it, although it'll be different than usual for me since I'm in Japan! Tomorrow morning/early afternoon I am hoping to get a few random things done, and then I'm going to help set up for our candle light service in Hikari... We will have a candle light service in the evening, then a potluck after it... then I think I'll probably come home, watch a Christmas movie and go to bed :)

On a side note, my teammates have so graciously opened up their home to me so that I have somewhere to spend Christmas day... we'll have brunch, chill and play games, then have turkey dinner together :)

Also, I've got a few skype dates in there too... obviously Mom and Dad, Bobby and his family, hopefully Lissa, and I'm hoping to catch Mom's side of the family at either their Christmas Eve gathering or their Christmas Day dinner.

I'm doing pretty good as far as not feeling homesick, which is a real blessing! Although I miss my family and Bobby, I think I'll be just fine :) I did afterall, ask God to provide for me to stay here over Christmas and He did just that so I have no right to complain! And besides, I'm thankful that I have a family to miss! Thank you for your prayers :)

I finally got around to making my Christmas card display yesterday... here's what I came up with:

(from a distance)
(the middle)
(the right)
(and the left)
I have to say thanks to Dayna K for the inspiration :) What do you think? and what do you do on Christmas Eve?