the most wonderful day of the year!

Christmas Eve celebrations began with hosting family and friends for our traditional dinner of Mexican Meatball Soup and Tortillas. We had two big tables, each set for 12 people. We ran out of soup before anyone got seconds (even though I quadrupled the recipe to supposedly serve 40 people!), but fortunately only Josh nobody seemed to mind too much. The time shared together was the best part anyway.

I left the house rather quickly following the 4pm meal in order to be at the church for a 5:30p choir rehearsal. Daddy manned the home, dressing all 4 kids and cleaning up from the meal. Fortunately, he had lots of help from Mom and 3 friends (Tanda, Ken, and Gary). Bravo, Daddy!




After the Candlelight Service (which was as beautiful and special as always), we continued our yearly tradition of coming home to get into pj's, eating cookies, drinking homemade eggnog (believe me when I say the real thing is nothing like the gross stuff sold in stores), and reading a lovely rendition of the Christmas story. Then the kids distributed the $5 gifts they purchased for one another in their own little exchange.













Thanks to simplicity, I was in bed at a record early 11p this year,. Wow! Not having to assemble toys or anything really cuts down on prep time. It was really nice!
Christmas morning dawned at 6:15a, which is the fairly typical Rise & Shine time around our house (dictated by the kids as always, of course). We dove right into stockings, which were our primary gift to the kids.






After a breakfast of baked oatmeal (with craisins and walnuts and cinnamon, yum!) and assorted fruit, we got right into unwrapping gifts. We even did a video chat with Daniel's family so that we could exchange gifts "together." Very cool!










We were really blessed to have two guests with us Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our good friend Gary bunked out on the futon and joined me in photo-taking during the gift-giving:


Ken is a sophmore from China who needed a place to stay during the holidays. We met him Tuesday afternoon when he arrived at our house and are really, really enjoying him! He is a sweet guy who is extremely helpful with the children. In this photo, he is seen helping Bronwyn put on the Cinderella slippers she received as a gift from her great-grandparents in Texas:



I have lots more pictures from our afternoon at my parents', but I will save those for another day. Right now, I have to get back to preparing for my sister's big day tomorrow!!!!