Our Christmas Eve Celebration

 On the night of Christmas Eve, we attended the Christmas Eve Service at our church as a family.  We usually attend this service together but it has looked very different over the years as our kids have grown.  When our girls were little, they were often involved in short skits as various characters ranging from sheep, to the shepherds, to even Mary or Joseph.  Other years they would read passages of Scripture or poems and they often played a musical instrument.  I have to admit that it is very bittersweet to see our girls now sitting in the church with me while Nolan takes part in the readings and the skits and other young toddlers / kids are tripping over lines, fighting behind the manger, and even ripping baby Jesus from the crib and dropping him on the ground.  It was a sweet night filled with laughter, yet a quiet time of peaceful singing as we reflected on the birth of our Savior.

Nolan kicked off the evening by reading the passage in Isaiah that foretold of our Savior's coming.

Then he walked to the back of the church and changed into his wiseman's costume while a few of the other kids took their places on the stage.

There may have been a couple of moments of cute chaos at this point!

We all knew ahead of time that Nolan would be dressing as a wiseman, but none of us had seen his costume so none of us were expecting what we saw from the corner of our eye when he started walking back down the aisle.  We may have laughed a bit, especially when we saw him carrying a kleenex box pretending that it was his gift to the King!

After the play was over, Nolan took his seat beside us and we closed out the service singing hymns by candlelight.

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After the church service was over, we loaded up into the car together and began our traditional drive through the country looking for our favorite holiday displays.  This house once again had their house decorated and all of the lights were coordinated with music.  

We sat at this house and watched for about six songs, before leaving and heading over to the lights in the city park.

Our annual family selfie

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We got back to the house about 7:30 and since we were all pretty chilled, I made some hot cocoa with vanilla ice cream and then we got dressed into our pjs and opened up our stockings.

I know that it looks like we are opening gifts instead of stockings here but the kids may have gone a little crazy with their stocking stuffers and a couple of them were too large to fit into the stockings so they wrapped them and laid them by the stockings instead.

This year I was given these little "christmas crackers" from a lady in my Bible Study.  I had never heard of them before, but apparently they are a favorite with the British.  Two people hold on to different ends of the cracker and then you pull and twist them apart.  The person who ends up with the larger piece gets the prizes that are tucked inside.  I beat Noel and received three small golfing pencils.  LOL

Most of us were pretty tired so after we opened up the stockings, the kiddos all headed downstairs to bed leaving me to clean up a bit and then just sit in the peaceful quiet of the tree before heading off to sleep myself.

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Picking Out Our Christmas Tree

 We wanted to wait until we could all be together to finish our Christmas decorating and to get our tree.  With the two older girls coming home from college at the end of the week, we decided that Saturday would be the perfect day to drive down to Potters Tree Farm and cut down our tree.  Actually, Noel and I were originally planning to go up to Hensler's Tree Farm because they have a much better selection of trees to choose from, but Melayna had to be at work by 4:00 and we weren't sure that we had enough time to make it all the way over to Hensler's and back, so we decided to play it safe and just stick to the farm that is closer to our house.  

Unfortunately, about thirty minutes before we were set to leave, Nolan started complaining of feeling nauseous and dizzy.  We definitely didn't want him getting sick while we were in the van, or even just feeling miserable while we were looking at trees, so he stayed home while the rest of us went.  I was sad that we had waited until we could all be together, only to not have us all together.  But I guess that's what happens sometimes and you just have to make the best of it.

Noel remembered how hard it was to cut down the tree last year (with his broken back) and the dull blade of their hack saws, so he came prepared this year.  One of their workers came out carrying a saw but as soon as she saw what he had, she laughed a little and turned around to hang it right back up.

And then we set off to start the search...

.... and we walked....

...and we walked....

... and we walked some more.

Okay, so I'm kidding.  It's not really that big of a tree farm so there really wasn't that much walking involved.  

I found a tree - no one liked it.

and then Laynie made her suggestion...

No one voted for her suggestion either.  Maybe Morgan's?

Okay, all joking (and bad trees) aside, we did eventually find one that was about the best of our options.  It was pretty full and one of the taller trees in that section.  Plus, it was pretty reasonably priced.  'Guess we have a winner.  Let's cut her down and take it home.

When we got home, we started walking in through the garage door and right before I entered the kitchen, I heard Nolan singing and jumping around inside.  We came through and asked him how he was doing and he said he felt much better.  When I asked him how he felt better so quickly, he said that maybe he had exaggerated things just a bit.  I think it was actually just drainage from his allergies that were making him feel badly and then as soon as he ate lunch, it went away.  

Oh well... he wasn't upset that he had missed out on our little tree adventure, so I guess I won't be either.

Christmas Day with the "H" Family

Christmas Day was on a Sunday this year so our church cancelled our Sunday School activities to allow us time to spend with family before church began at 10.  Then after church, our plan was to go over to Noel's Mom's house for dinner and to open presents.

Unfortunately, we had found out earlier in the day on Christmas Eve, that Noel's mom and Bella, our niece, was without heat at her house because the furnace had stopped working at some point during the day.  She said that they were bundled up and were fine at that point but she stayed home from the Christmas Eve service in case the serviceman called her back and needed to get in.  We were pretty sure that a repair man wasn't going to come over at that time on Christmas Eve but we took Bella to the service with us.   When we dropped her back off later and the furnace was still off, Noel invited them both to come over and sleep at our house where they'd be warm and also for us to host Christmas Dinner the next day.  Charlotte agreed to us hosting lunch, but she thought that they'd be fine because they had electric blankets on their bed so Noel left them and we all came back home.  Later that night on Christmas Eve  after we opened our stockings and the kids went to bed, Noel took a few tools and headed back over to his Mom's to try a couple of other things that our brother in law had suggested, but by 1:30 a.m., it still wasn't working.   He offered our house up one more time as a place for them to sleep but again, they thought they would be fine so he just came home.  

The next morning when Noel woke up, he had a text that said that the house was all the way down to 48 degrees inside, so he quickly arranged for some space heaters and while the kids and I headed off to church, Noel took the heaters over to his mom's house to put them in the basement to keep the pipes from freezing and on the main living area so the two of them could warm up a bit.  Then he went back outside to try a couple of other things, and while he was working, a repairman showed up and the two of them worked together to (bang on a switch here and tighten another switch there) get the furnace back on and running.  As soon as Charlotte knew that she would have heat, she said that dinner was back on at her house and we would go on just as planned after church.

Whew!  What a different Christmas morning that all was!!

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Anyway, as soon as we all arrived for Christmas dinner, we were asked to do the family pictures in front of the tree and then the kids and grandkid photos on the staircase.

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After we took the pictures, we were able to sit down and eat a delicious meal together.  Well, at least in the same area.  There are too many people to fit at the one table so the all of the kids (who are hardly kids anymore) sit at a table in the living room and then the rest of us sit at the table in the dining room.  We usually have a good time talking and laughing and catching up with each other.

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And then it was time to sit and open all of the gifts together.

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!