We went to a candlelight Christmas service at church on Christmas Eve this year. The kids sat with us through the whole service :)
I love to spend quality time together as a family at home on Christmas Eve. I made our traditional quiche dinner after church. And we made Santa cookies after dinner...
Playing a new board game together before bed:
Opening one present on Christmas Eve before bedtime...
Tycen and Shaylie have a lot of "stuff" and get a lot of new "stuff" every birthday and Christmas. As crazy and overwhelming as it can get with all the gifts, I really like to try and teach our kids to appreciate each and every one and I truly believe that less is more. With that said, we decided to put away some of their birthday gifts (like we did last year) and save them for Christmas. We figured they has so many gifts on their birthday and they opened them so fast that they'd never know the difference. They couldn't possibly remember all their gifts they got, right?! Wrong.
I really should've known, Tyce has an amazing memory. So, he opens his gift on Christmas Eve and says, "I already have this puzzle. Cole got it for me for my birthday." Ha! He even remembered who got it for him. This was put away immediately after their birthday party and never looked at or discussed again. Oh, boy! We tried really hard to distract, avoid, get excited about his gift, but he knew better. And we couldn't really convince him that it was a new gift. Poor guy, we felt pretty bad. He was a good sport but we could tell he was a little bummed. Needless to say, this will be the last year of "re-gifting." :P
Daddy, Alyssa and I all got new PJs on Christmas Eve:
We celebrate the birth of Christ with such great joy this year. He has blessed us beyond measure with the addition of our sweet Alyssa Hope. Praise Jesus!
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. --Isaiah 7:14
