Christmas Eve was wonderful. All day long we were busy with baking, wrapping presents, taking dinner to a family, and delivering last minute treats. Since the kids had school all the way until Friday, it was really the first day that felt like vacation. We were so busy that we didn't start our evening activities until rather late.
We started with the traditional nativity play. Kate was a beautiful Mary and William took his job as Joseph very serious. Some older kids had come into his nursery class on Sunday and acted out the nativity story, so he knew just what to do.
Sarah was decked out as a wise man. She insisted she was wise man enough to be all three, but Rachel found her some companions.
Ben squeezed in a very small Marie the cat costume to be a sheep.
I was the shepherd. Let's just pretend this photo isn't blurry.
Rachel was our beautiful angel.
David read the story and did a stint as the donkey and inn keeper. It was a lovely nativity play.
There was a rather unorthodox portion of the play where Joseph was riding the sheep. I loved it.
We paused throughout the play to sing carols. The kids were really enjoying the singing this year and we sang and sang late into the night. They kept insisting that we sing all the verses and kept adding more songs. "We have to sing
O Holy Night and
What Child is This?" "We didn't sing
Angels We Have Heard on High yet." It was so fun. And with the older girls doing great at harmonies, we actually sounded pretty good this year.
Then I encouraged them all to perform some Christmas songs on their various instruments. Kate played two of her many Christmas songs that she has learned on the piano. Ben played a song on the cello that he figured out himself.
Sarah and Rachel played some violin and flute duets.
We read the traditional Christmas card book, and then the kids each opened a present.
Inside were matching pajama pants that I had been sewing for the past month. It was a big project for me, since I am not much of a seamstress, but I found that I really enjoyed it. I even managed to keep it a secret, which was tricky. I only had a little bit of time during the day while the kids were at school to work on them. I finished them the morning of the 23rd.
They stuck the pajama pants right on and we took a few pictures.
We finished off the evening with lots of yummy treats,
and headed upstairs to bed. It was very late, so the little ones were asleep about when their heads hit the pillow. It was truly a great night.
I was so grateful to be surrounded by my wonderful family. I couldn't ask for anything more.
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