Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve, we invited my mom, her boyfriend Sandy, my sister and her husband and kids over. We put the kids in costumes and tried to get them to act out the nativity while I narrated the scriptural account. Hudson was a less than cooperative shepherd who quickly shed his headdress and insisted on taking turns holding the baby. Maira was an angel who absolutely had to wear a crown as part of her costume and insisted on visiting the baby along with the shepherds. Kind of chaotic but hopefully they felt the spirit of the story.

After the company was gone, of course they all unwrapped their annual Christmas jammies. This year I decided to just do the same thing for all 4. And of course we had to dig out Howie's Santa costume from last year so he could match too.

Here's our tree on Christmas Eve, once all the kids were tucked into bed.

And here are all the little noisemakers in our bed on Christmas morning, waiting for the OK from Dad that they can go downstairs (he has to get the lighting and tripods set up first, of course).

Connor lost his front tooth on Christmas Eve (and lost the other one on Boxing Day).

After opening gifts from each other, we got dressed and went to church. After church, Grandma and Sandy came over and we exchanged gifts with them.

This is Maira working on a make-your-own book kit she received for Christmas.

Two days after Christmas, we packed up the van and headed down to Raymond to spend a few days with Jess' parents, grandmother, and some of his siblings.

We celebrated Hudson's 3rd birthday while we were there, but that's a story for another post...