Christmas Afternoon at Grammy's

Having Church on Christmas Day was great.  We sang with beautiful music, heard a wonderful Christmas talk about our Savior and got to see lots of our friends and exchange Christmas greetings.  After a few hours at home, relaxing and enjoying playing with each other and new fun things, we went to Grammy and Grandaddy's for Christmas dinner.

We had fun cooking together over at their house and enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner. After dinner the kids still had enough energy to open another present from their grandparents. When the last present was unwrapped, we played a rousing game of JINGO!

It was a wonderful Christmas Day!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day started well before daylight at our house.  For the month of December, 3 of the kids had been wrangling for an earlier wake-up/start time.  We heard movement by 5 in the morning, and by 5:25 most of the natives were up and starting to riot.  After pulling their teenage brother out of bed and rousing the sleeping 2 year old, we were ready to go by 5:30 am. 

Someone must have been really good this year...

ORANGE STICKS!  Santa has helpers in far off places :)

SPAM 

Harry Potter Mania

I love how they all have fun helping Luke explore his stocking and get just as excited with him as with their own stuff.

After stockings, I was all for going back to bed, but apparently Santa didn't bring me a nap.  So it was on to the tree.  We open presents one at a time, so our little elf helpers make sure everyone has a present before we begin each round.  It is so fun to see the excitement over the gifts that they are giving to others, wanting that to be the first present opened.  This year the kids drew names again but some of them also went shopping at the dollar store and got small, thoughtful gifts for everyone.  It was fun to take them shopping and see them in action.  I think my favorite gift was what Jake thought Don HAD to have...plastic hockey sticks. 

Luke was first up to open a present and Jake had drawn Luke's name.  He made sure it was the first present Luke got to open, Jake's old Thomas Tent that has been in the garage for a little while, the perfect gift for a 2 year old train crazy kid.  Luke has absolutely loved it!  Everything and everyone gets to go into the tent.  It took him a little while to realize there were more presents to be opened if he came out of the tent!

It was a fun morning, filled with surprises, hugs and lots of love. 

 

Once presents were opened, we had our wonderful Christmas breakfast, complete with Christmas Tree bread and lots of bacon. 

After breakfast, we all got ready for a wonderful morning at church, leaving at 8:30 in the morning.  It is amazing how much a person can do when they get up at 5 in the morning!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, Don's parents joined us for dinner and the Nativity Story.  Dinner was our traditional homemade soup bowls with potato soup.  After dinner, Don read the account of the Savior's birth from Luke 2 while the kids acted it out, and we sang Christmas songs. 



Joseph, Mary and the Shepherds Singing




The Angel with a Big Message




Luke appointing Grandaddy Head Angel

After a delicious dessert, Don's parents left and the kids started the process of getting ready for bed.  Everyone knows you can't go to bed on Christmas Eve without getting cookies ready for Santa...and carrots for the reindeer of course! 

Luke couldn't resist tasting one of Santa's cookies.  Good thing Santa doesn't mind sharing :)

 

From Our House to Yours!

Candy Houses

We went to our friends house for the annual Christmas building of Candy Houses.  It is always so much fun to get together with friends to do this, and will always be grateful to our sweet Candy who introduced this tradition to us several years ago! 

Hayley working on her masterpiece

Trevor designing his smiley house

The Final Products

Luke enjoying the candy on his house!

Jake, Trevor and  Zach H.

 

Hayley and her house



Playing outside afterwards is another one of the best parts of the morning!

Minute it Win it, Christmas Style

We had so much fun at a family Christmas party at Don's cousins house on Monday.  After a great meal, we played Minute to Win it, Christmas style.  We stacked sockets with candy canes, threw marshmallows through a wreath, and played  Christmas bingo.  There was some pretty stiff competition and lots of laughing as marshmallows were flying everywhere.

 

We even got to play with a super cute puppy. 

It was so fun, thanks Tracy and Kevin!

Old Bethlehem

The church down the street from us had a live Nativity on Sunday.  It was amazing.  They had bales of hay to sit on outside as we watched and listened to the Christmas story being reinacted, complete with a live camel, sheep and a donkey. 

Inside they had recreated Old Bethlehem, complete with 8+ craft stations including candle making, carpentry (where the kids made a wooden angel), medal work, pottery, weaving, stiching, and more where everyone was in costume.  They also had a food station with foods from the time period to sample, like grapes, warm bread, dates and more.  The kids loved it all.

The next night we went to Tracy's house for a family Christmas party.  Tracy was telling us about their recent trip to Bethelem and Jake piped up, "I was there last night!".    I guess it made an impression.  It was a great. hands-on experience to help make Bethlehem come alive.

The Best Christmas Pageant EVER!!

The youth group at church put on "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" earlier this month. 

Michael got to play the part of Leroy Herdman, aka the Wise Man who brought the ham as a gift to the Baby Jesus.  It was a lot of fun working with the youth and getting this all to come together in just 3 practices was an amazing feat. 

Hayley and her friends got to make a special appearance as the little angels in the last act.  They were so cute!