Christmas!

(Dec. 24-25, 2014)

We had such a great Christmas. My parents drove up to spend a few days with us and arrived on Christmas Eve. That night we headed over to Jeff and Alison’s for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and program. They both do such a great job of picking a theme and having yummy food and creating a short program fit for the holiday.

My parents joined us this year, along with Mark’s parents and Alison’s parents. The girls loved having both sets of grandparents with them on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We ate yummy schawarma chicken in pita bread and other finger foods to go with the theme like hummus and veggies. This year’s theme was A Night in Bethlehem. Having just gone to Israel, Jeff and Alison shared some pictures of Bethlehem and where Jesus was supposedly born.

After the quick presentation all the kids put together a reader’s theater of the birth of the Savior. Jeff read from the Bible while the kids acted out what happened. It was hilarious.

Josh and Whitney were Mary and Joseph, with Megyn, Téa, Calista and Piper being the wise men shepherds.

Everyone took a bow at the end.

Christmas day finally came! The girls have to have Max in the picture every year.

Santa gave all the girls princess Santa hats this year.

Merry Christmas! I never think to have a family picture on Christmas morning. But usually that’s because it’s just our family and it’s harder to get a picture when there’s no extra photographer.

I convinced my parents to come up and have Christmas with us. Mark’s parents have had a few Christmas mornings with us over the years and I thought it was time my parents came and enjoyed all the chaos. Papa found a pretty bow to accessorize with.

It isn’t hard to get smiles for the camera when opening presents. Téa was so happy with everything she got.

My favorite part about this Christmas and this kid was that every time she gave someone a gift that was from her she would say ‘you are going to love this present I picked out for you’. It was awesome.

Calista got a package of 7200 rubber bands for her rainbow loom. She has been locked in her room since Christmas morning making all sorts of new things she find online.

Nonna and Papa gave Calista a remote control car. It took all three of them to get it together and ready for racing.

The rest of the day was filled with more family coming over. We had our traditional lasagna meal and lots and lots of game playing. Last year all the kids ice skated pretty much the entire day. Unfortunately, this year the rink just wasn’t ready.