Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we went to Liz and Hector's house for our new annual dinner and nativity. We started the evening decorating gingerbread houses. The older kids love creating and the two younger boys love eating the candy. At this stage in life it's a bit time intensive for the parents since we get to most of the work. I don't know how thrilled they all are with me for providing this fun activity. :) After dinner we got the kids dressed up for the nativity reenactment. Our cast this year was pretty well rounded. We even had a new baby to play Jesus. This picture cracked me up because they were all fulfilling their "roles". Megan/"Mary" was tenderly touching baby Parker/"Jesus", Matthew/"Joseph" was tenderly watching over Mary, Sarah/"The Angel" was angelically watching over all, Joseph/"The Wise Man" was giving his gift to the baby, and Thomas/"The Shepard" is disgruntled by the whole experience. I think shepherds must have felt that way. ;)
I really wanted to take Thomas and the girls to see Santa this year, but I was stuck at home, so I was pleased that he made an appearance at our Christmas Eve party.
And here my kids are with their cousins all ready in their new Christmas pj's. We went home shortly after this to get everyone to bed at a decent time.
L to R: Thomas, Megan, Sarah, Baby Parker, Matthew, Joseph

Christmas Tree

We finally got around to decorating the tree. This was the first year that Mike put the lights on for me. I guess "modified bedrest" has it's benefits. The kids all had a great time hanging up the ornaments. We also continued the tradition of going to a tree farm to cut our own tree. We tried a new place this year. After a lot of searching we found a great tree. Not too "bushy" and just the right height to fit in our front window. The kids like to look for a tree for about 10 minutes and then spend the rest of the time climbing on tree stumps to practice their balancing skills. Eventually we find a tree worthy of my critical eye and Mike cuts it down. Thankfully the tree farm hauls your tree back to the front for you since we of course found ours on the far end of the property. It was a fun day. Unfortunately I forgot a card for my camera. So no pictures getting the tree.