Christmas Eve 2017

Christmas Eve was sweet and special this year with church in the morning.  We opened PJs before heading to a freind's home for a wonderful evening.

Abe and Bolton were pretty excited with their Ninjago pajamas.

Levi wasn't happy at all with his... until he tried them on and realized they were so soft.

Eliza loved her new owl jammies.

Bryant requested jammies that were character based so I found some Legend of Zelda fabric and made him some pants... I thought they were going to be way too big, but he's growing way too much lately and they are not too long!

Jonas told me like a day before Christmas Eve that he didn't want a one piece pajama, unfortunately, because of last year's fiasco I ordered early and found these in a men's size for Jonas.  He was actually really excited once he saw them and that they actually fit! 

I ran into this friend from our ward at the commissary on Saturday and asked if they had plans for Christmas Eve thinking we'd invite them over if they didn't... but then he ended up beating me to the punch.  Not very many people invite our gigantic crew over, so we were excited!

They have some fun traditions we got to take part in.  First up, lighting candles.  One for each Sunday in December.  I wish I could remember its significance, but I only remember that it is a German tradition, his dad served a mission there and their family lived there with the AF a few years ago.

Our Bishop and his lovely wife!

Pet turtles are a favorite.

Natalie loves a squishy baby.

They got out the chimes for us all to play.  We had so much fun with that!

Abraham wanted this panda to look over his baby brother.

We also got to have a small talent show.  Eliza opted to play Oh, Come All Ye Faithful from memory.  She hasn't had a piano lesson for months (slacker mom).  She did great!

Levi got to play around with a cello, he wishes that he was learning that this year.

Getting ready for The Nativity.

A first this year, camels for the Wise men. 

We definitely added some males to the production... the other two families have all girls.

Bryant volunteered to be Joseph, a sign of maturing for sure!  Jonas was the donkey.

Fisher had the honor of being the Baby.

I think our shepherds and sheep were hilarious... they were a little distracted, to say the least!

The kings making their entrance atop their camels.

These girls are so much fun.  And so darn cute!

A couple pictures from one of the other moms.

We really are blessed to have such great people around us!  We love our ward family, even though we miss our family, family so much.