Christmas Eve

This morning the kids played in the snow and built snowmen with Grandpa and Roy. They were so excited!

I love Christmas Eve. We have established some great traditions. Some from when Roy and I were kids and some from hearing what other people do.

This afternoon, the kids and I decorated some cards for Jesus. We did this last year. We make a card and write on it our gift for the Savior. It is something we will do to improve ourselves and/or help others. This year, I plan to put these cards somewhere for us to review them periodically. Then next Christmas we will hopefully have a year of improvement to show for our gift. I want to keep these in a fancy Christmas stocking or package. This is still evolving a bit.

After a nice Christmas eve dinner of ham and trimmings, D and K decorated cookies for Santa Claus.

A decorated a cookie too but we didn't give it to Santa.

We started the evening singing carols and hymns and opened the Christmas jammies to get ready for bed.

This moved into the acting portion of the evening. Starting in Helaman we read Samuel the Lamanite's prophecy about the birth of Jesus Christ. Uncle Rick was Samuel and the kids were the wicked Nephite's throwing 'stones' of wrapping paper that, despite the scriptural account, hit Samuel quite regularly. Then we changed into the New Testament. Grandpa was the narrator, Roy was Joseph, K was Mary, Uncle Justin was the donkey and a wise man, Grandma was the innkeeper, Uncle Rick and D were the shephards and wise men and A was a very large and mobile baby Jesus. I was the camera operator trying to get the chaos on film for future generations to enjoy. Despite the lack of professionalism, it was really amazing. K was a great Mary, trying to get everyone to look at her baby. A was sweet as a little baby/sheep/stone-thrower/chaos-spreader. D took his parts very seriously. It was great having other people around to fill in the gaps.

After the nativity, we read a Christmas story called A Christmas Dress for Ellen. I buy a new book each year. The kids were sweet and settled down so we took a ride to look at lights. A went to bed and the Uncles stayed home to be with her (plus there's not enough room for all of us to be in one vehicle!) K fell asleep on the ride. D made it through the ride and was super excited for Santa when we got home. He was tired enough he fell asleep quickly despite his excitement.

I really enjoyed the evening. It was great having family around. My dad shared some stories that I was able to record on the video. It was a really meaningful and special night.