Christmas Eve

We decided to change things up a bit this year and I love the way things went!

We always spend Christmas Eve at my mom's for dinner and presents. This year, we bumped dinner up just a bit so between dinner and presents, we could go to church for our candlelight service! We had never been for various reasons, the biggest being that we had very young kids and dragging out the evening wasn't appealing ;) But now, they are all old enough and it was perfect! The service was a wonderful addition to our Christmas Eve and made the evening a bit more meaningful. At the end of singing many carols and hearing all the verses of Jesus' birth, we each had candles that we lit and sang Silent Night with all the lights out in the sanctuary, only the lights of the candles. It was very still and very special.

After the service, we went back to my mom's for gifts :) We took it a bit more slowly this year with Mom handing each of the younger ones their gifts one at a time (Kristen doesn't get toys anymore, she gets a gift card to spend anyway she chooses ;)) It was really nice for her to get to share in their joy a bit more!
I love when they open something and say, "LOOK at what I got!". Priceless :)
Kristen got a couple of small gifts that she loves along with some cash which she is looking forward to spending ;)
The boys got a frog aquarium (terrarium?)! I forsee a unit study on frogs and metamorphosis this spring ;)
Megan's new doll that she named "Megan". I thought that was appropriate ;)
The boys got so many things this Christmas to build or transform...does that surprise you??
It was a fantastic Christmas Eve! Dinner was wonderful and we added a new tradition which we all loved. :)