whobody did that?: whobody had a Christmas-y Eve?

I am going to take a little break in sharing about our Disney World

trip to write about our Christmas holiday.

This WAS the best Christmas ever!

Everything went well...everyone was mostly healthy...and we had lots of good family time.

We spent Christmas Eve day just hanging around the house,

and getting food ready for Christmas Day.

This time of year, I am SO THANKFUL that we have nowhere to travel for the holidays. We live close to both of our homes and don't have to travel to go "home" for Christmas. (Makes for a much less stressful holiday for me, I'm sure.)

We spent the evening taking part in our usual tradition....we went to Grandma Tractor's church for Christmas Eve service. Then we headed to her house for dinner and present opening.

First...my good looking kids (I'm a little biased) in their church outfits:

This is the FIRST year that I did not get them all special Christmas outfits. We really just wore what we wore for family pictures this fall....and what Lola wore last year for Christmas. I STILL think they looked awful cute though.

The tie for Cruz was a last minute find in his sock drawer...

since the sweater I had planned on putting him in was, ahem,

a little snug.

NOW seriously...the tie made me giggle all night long.

LOVE IT and LOVE HIM.

For some reason, Cruz only wants to have his picture taken by himself....when I try to get a group picture, it just doesn't work as well.

(Probably because the whole time Nash is yelling "me want to hold little cruzie woozie"...and Cruz is just trying to get away from Nash....)

Church went alright...Cruz LOVES going to church...I think he really enjoys the music AND the people who sit behind us

(and above us in the choir loft) and smile at him.

At church, Cruz was actually really loud!

I think he was trying to sing along after the music was over.

We actually got to sit with Jason's family, which the kids really enjoyed. (But, it seems to me that next year we are going to have to spill into another pew.)

I always get a little emotional at the Christmas Eve service.

I'm very thankful that God sent his Son for us....

(obviously, the whole reason we celebrate Christmas)

and, of course, I am also

very thankful for our family

...and amazed at how much my kids grow year to year. It is crazy to think that last Christmas Cruz was just a teeny tiny 12+ lb one month old!

Sigh.

FUNNY story from church.

Father Koopman always invites the

kids up for a childrens' sermon to review the Christmas story.

He does this in a question answer format....so he asked questions like

"where did Mary & Joseph stop for the night?"

"what is a stable?"

"how do you think they kept baby Jesus warm?"

....and the kids had all of the normal answers for him...

and then he began talking about the shepherds and asked

"how do you think the shepherds smelled?"

and Lola's answer was

"with their noses."

The whole congregation laughed...

(I didn't even know this was Lola until after church!)

After church we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

Mary had a wonderful meal for us (and some good wine and snacks too) and we enjoyed being together with Jason's family.

The kids, as always, LOVE playing with Mason, Cagney & Devin.

We opened presents after dinner....

Cruz was actually very fussy at this point (we are fighting a terrible diaper rash :( and he was feeling some pain)....so I didn't get the best pictures in the world.

At this point I thought we were going to have to call it a night....but a little snuggling from Mommy and he was back to his happy self. (I loved that too.)