Christmas Songs and Staring Out the Window On Christmas Eve

When I was a kid (we still do this every year), we'd go to my grandparents on Christmas Eve.  It was a HUGE gathering of family from Mema and Papa, Mom and Dad, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Brother, Sister, and the Greats (aunt and uncle).  We'd always eat supper first which made the kids CRAZY b/c we were ready to get to the presents, and they'd always have to clean up after supper before the presents.  That is all a story in itself, but this post is about the ride home.  The ride home from my grandparents was one of the most magical moments in the history of my childhood.  It was usually very late by a child's standards, 11 or 11:30 at night, and it was always cold and dark.  As we rode we listened to Christmas music on the radio and me, my brother, and my sister (both younger) would look out the window the whole ride home watching for Santa and his sleigh.  Some nights we saw nothing, and others we were quite sure we caught a glimpse of the jolly fat man in the red suit.  The build up on the way home was intense.  See my parents would sneak off at some point in the day on Christmas Eve and set up the house like Santa had been there already.  It was somehow so believable then.  We felt like the luckiest kids on earth b/c we knew he'd come to our house as one of the first.  As we pulled in, my parents would get the camera and GIGANTIC camcorder out, asking all the while, "You think he's already come?"  We'd excitedly get out of the car and for some reason nervously make our way to the door.  Then the moment would hit.  We opened the front door, turned the lights on, and there it'd all be, laid out across the den waiting on us.  But even though I don't always remember each year what we walked in to, I'll never forget the 25 minute ride home that always seemed like an eternity.  Do you have Christmas memories like that?