Christmas!

Christmas Eve

 

Lisa & Steve came over again this year for Christmas Eve.  They say it's fun to be around little kids; we say it's fun to have their company!  Alyssa just barely graduated from BYU-I and will be starting a new job in January, and Diana is home from BYU-I as well, so it was a treat to have their entire family!  We had a yummy dinner of Café Rio Salads, with lots of yummy desserts Lisa brought, and then had our traditional Christmas Eve program with the kids acting out the Nativity.  It was so nice to have the nativity costumes again this year.  Hopefully they will stand up to years of use, since they are supposed to be one size fits all!  There was a really good spirit in our home on Christmas Eve.

 

 

Matthew reading from the scriptures (and manning the piano, a job he relishes)

 

 

Ethan being a shepherd

 

 

Rachel the angel, with Clayton and Alyssa

 

Joshua played a great Joseph, and Elizabeth was Mary.

 

 

The wise men (Ethan was being versatile) presented their gifts

 

Joshua

 

 

Alyssa

 

 

Ready for Christmas

 

I always have to take some pictures of our living room all ready for the kids on Christmas morning.  Looks like Santa paid a visit!

 

Rachel: Girly Legos and her requested gumballs for her gumball machine.  She also asked for a real bunny, but we told her we already have enough pets, so she also received an adorable Calico Critters bunny family for her doll house, as well as a new coat and a Nerf gun.

 

 

Joshua: Thomas the Train set with extra train cars, books, clothes, and some Matchbox cars

 

Elizabeth: Our Generation Doll, money for clothes, knitting kit, calendar, slippers, blow dryer, and curling iron.

 

Emma: Violin!  She has been begging to start playing the violin for a few years now.  She had kind of given up asking that last while, so she was shocked to see it on Christmas morning!  My mom has been super generous to offer to come to our house every week to teach her lessons.  She'll continue with the piano for now, as well.  She also received doll clothes, a knitting kit like Elizabeth's with extra yarn, and doll clothes patterns.

 

 

Matthew: Mincecraft Legos were his big gift, plus music downloads, a book of Super Mario Bros. piano music, and a Minecraft t-shirt.

 

 

 

Christmas Morning!

On-the-stairs picture: Joshua and Rachel were still waking up.

Some pictures of the fun:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think Brent has been enjoying the Nerf gun even more than Rachel!

 

 

Emma trying out her new violin

 

We received some absolutely classic movies for Christmas.  I was thrilled with these!

 

 

Christmas Dinner

 

After a very enjoyable morning as a family and watching the Sound of Music in the afternoon, we had my parents and Brent & Mindy over for Christmas dinner.  It was fun to pull out all the fancy china, glasses, and silverware.  Elizabeth made cute place cards for everyone.  We had the traditional ham, funeral potatoes, green bean casserole, Christmas spinach salad, rolls, and my Great-Grandma Lena's Thanksgiving Fruit Salad.  We pulled out the set of Conversation Cards I'd made a while back and each person answered the question on their card.  The questions were things like, "What was your favorite Christmas growing up?"  "What is your favorite thing about your father?" etc.

It was a wonderful Christmas!  I hope you had a merry one, too!