Usually I'm counting down the days 'till Christmas from 364, but, somehow, Christmas managed to sneak up on me this year. After singing carols and drinking hot cocoa with my friend on an 80+ degree night, it finally hit me around eleven thirty last night... "Omigosh, Katie! TOMORROW'S CHRISTMAS EVE!"

And that 'tomorrow' is today. It's Christmas Eve. We've been cooking all day, it seems, and in a few hours we'll head off to church for the Christmas Eve Service. Then we'll come back, watch Polar Express while normal people watch It's a Wonderful Life, then we'll open a gift or two and go to bed.

In our old house, where we lived for six-years-and-four-months, I hated sleeping on the night before Christmas. Not when my presents were taunting me just around the door! But now I like it. It might just be that I'm older. It could also very well be that, in this house, we have a fireplace, and from my bed I can see the fire. But it's probably just that I'm an insomniac and, for some reason, it's been easier the past few years to sleep on Christmas Eve. (Though last night I slept pretty good, too...)

Anyway, to end this babbling post (actually, only three paragraphs, now that I look), would you like to read a story that Alyx came up with and I wrote down years ago? If so, feel free to keep reading. If not, go ahead and ex-out of your browser - it is pretty goofy.

*Ahem*

Hello, my name is Sandy Livingston. My family and I moved to Orlando, Florida into a small neighborhood called Lake Bosse. While I was exploring the house, I tripped over a loose floorboard. A hidden staircase fell from the ceiling. I, being adventurous, climbed up slowly. There was nothing in the attic but a couple of boxes and some sort of machine in the corner. I walked over to the machine and saw a blue crystal. I picked up the crystal, realizing that it was a time machine.

“Where would you like to go?” the time machine asked.

After thinking for a moment, I answered, “The birth of Christ.”

“When you wish to come back, hold the crystal in your right hand and say ‘Take me home’.”

There was a bright flash of light and by the time I could see again, I was in the dessert. On my left there were two pal trees, and on my right was a small pool. In the distance I could see black specks. As they drew nearer, I made out a couple camels, and on them, three kings. Or they looked like kings.

They stopped in from on me. One of them said, “Who are you?”

“I’m… Sandy Livingston.”

“Where are you going?”

“Um… Bethlehem?”

“We are heading that way also. Would you like to join us?”

“Sure.”

I mounted a camel. After riding for about an hour, it had grown really dark, and the star we were following stopped above a barn.

“We are here,” the first king announced.

 We walked in and the kings gave gold, frankincense, and myrrh to a baby in a feed box.

“Um… I don’t have a gift,” I whispered to the first king. The king touched the bandana that was tied around my neck.

“This will be your gift,” he said.

I untied it and laid it across Jesus. I looked up and Mary smiled at me. I hitched a ride with the kings back to the spot I came from and watched them disappear into the distance. Then I took out the blue crystal and whispered, “Take me home.”

Another bright flash and I was back in the attic. Not a second had passed. I returned the crystal just in time to hear my mom call, “Sandy, time for dinner!”

“Coming, Mom!”

I smiled as I climbed down the stairs, pulling out a piece of straw I had taken from the barn.

~Charli Rae 

|Job 39:19-25|