Merry Christmas!
I hope everyone is having a very merry Christmas!
It seems like we've been celebrating for quite a while now, and we still have more fun to go!
Thanks to Mom and Dad's Christmas gift to me, I now have a new camera. You'll have to forgive me for going overboard with it.
Anyway, we started our celebrations on Christmas Eve, attending an early Christmas Eve Mass at church. The kids sang beautifully in the children's choir and were so cute I felt like crying (pregnancy hormones, I guess).
They sang "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing". In preparation, we sang it everyday in school so that Ben and the girls would be able to memorize it. At choir practice, Miss Alyssa told them to sing their loudest. Well, Ben took her seriously and sang very loudly. His voice was easily heard above all others as he gave it his all. Thankfully, he takes after his dad (is able to stay in tune) and knew all the words. He was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him. Afterward he asked Miss Alyssa if he had sung loud enough :-)
Here is a picture of Allister in her Christmas dress, and one of Ben with a little friend. They are standing in front of the Chrismon tree at church and you can see one of the needlepointed Chrismons Chloe made a few years ago in Ben's picture (a red cross by Lauren's shoulder).
After the service, the kids and I went home to open our Christmas Eve presents. Each child picked one present to open and they all picked the ones Grandmother had sent. All were a big hit. Chloe carried her Narnia series with her all around the house for the rest of the night, Allie loved her dolls and said it was the best Christmas ever, Anna Claire pushed her stroller around the house at top speed, Ben was very excited about his remote-controlled Jeep and made me drive to Walgreens to get batteries, and Kievan was so happy about her critter gift that she said she didn't need any more presents!
After opening presents Chloe put the little ones to bed while I took Kievan back to church for Midnight Mass (she was acolyting for the service).
Despite the late night, everyone was up bright and early in the morning. The first thing we had to do was to put baby Jesus in the manger (which had been empty until this morning).
The kids put on their special Christmas shirts from Nana before we opened the stockings.
After stockings some friends came over for breakfast and Papa made his special biscuits and chocolate gravy.
Then, we opened more presents!
And yes, Peanut enjoyed everything to. You can almost see him in this picture :-)
Well, I'd better get busy- it's time to get ready to go to Christmas dinner with some friends.
We love and miss you all!
It seems like we've been celebrating for quite a while now, and we still have more fun to go!
Thanks to Mom and Dad's Christmas gift to me, I now have a new camera. You'll have to forgive me for going overboard with it.
Anyway, we started our celebrations on Christmas Eve, attending an early Christmas Eve Mass at church. The kids sang beautifully in the children's choir and were so cute I felt like crying (pregnancy hormones, I guess).They sang "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing". In preparation, we sang it everyday in school so that Ben and the girls would be able to memorize it. At choir practice, Miss Alyssa told them to sing their loudest. Well, Ben took her seriously and sang very loudly. His voice was easily heard above all others as he gave it his all. Thankfully, he takes after his dad (is able to stay in tune) and knew all the words. He was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him. Afterward he asked Miss Alyssa if he had sung loud enough :-)
Here is a picture of Allister in her Christmas dress, and one of Ben with a little friend. They are standing in front of the Chrismon tree at church and you can see one of the needlepointed Chrismons Chloe made a few years ago in Ben's picture (a red cross by Lauren's shoulder).
After the service, the kids and I went home to open our Christmas Eve presents. Each child picked one present to open and they all picked the ones Grandmother had sent. All were a big hit. Chloe carried her Narnia series with her all around the house for the rest of the night, Allie loved her dolls and said it was the best Christmas ever, Anna Claire pushed her stroller around the house at top speed, Ben was very excited about his remote-controlled Jeep and made me drive to Walgreens to get batteries, and Kievan was so happy about her critter gift that she said she didn't need any more presents!
After opening presents Chloe put the little ones to bed while I took Kievan back to church for Midnight Mass (she was acolyting for the service).
Despite the late night, everyone was up bright and early in the morning. The first thing we had to do was to put baby Jesus in the manger (which had been empty until this morning).
The kids put on their special Christmas shirts from Nana before we opened the stockings.
After stockings some friends came over for breakfast and Papa made his special biscuits and chocolate gravy.
Then, we opened more presents!
And yes, Peanut enjoyed everything to. You can almost see him in this picture :-)
Well, I'd better get busy- it's time to get ready to go to Christmas dinner with some friends.
We love and miss you all!
Comments
Aunt Jessi
And Aunt Jessi, I would love to answer your question, but I just realized I don't really know either!