Monday, January 2, 2012

December 24th - Christmas Eve

 Our Christmas Eve was pretty perfect. Only Christian was feeling a little rough, but even he had a great day.
 Our church had lots of Christmas Eve services, so we went to one in the afternoon so we could have a leisurely evening.
We did something new this year.  We had a shepherd's dinner (thanks for the idea Becki!!!). We all dressed up like shepherds and ate dinner. The whole point was to really impress upon the kids what this night was really about. Christian was so excited about being a shepherd.
 While we were eating dinner an "angel" named McKenna came and told us some great news....that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and we should go and see him. We all went to the manger scene and put baby Jesus in the manger and sang "Away in a Manger."  Isn't Christian so sweet standing there with his shepherd's staff.
 Then everyone opened one present. Both the kids got Lego sets.
And then it was time for bed. We have never made much of a big deal about Santa. In fact we have flat out told the kids that St. Nicholas was a real man, but that "Santa" isn't real. They know that lots of families like to play the "Santa" game, but we don't make a big deal out of it one way or the other. We have Santa stuff out and read Santa books and sing Santa songs, but we don't write letters to Santa. You get the idea. So earlier in the day on Christmas Eve I was putting a roast in the crock pot and I was cutting up some carrots. McKenna asked me if she could have one. I thought she wanted to take a bite but she took it and headed out the front door and put it on the porch for the reindeer. That was a first. Later that night she asked me if she could have a cookie. I told her she could have one, until she said "Well, I bet Santa wants more than one and he's going to want some milk too." So she sat out milk and cookies and much to all of our surprise the next morning we found that the cookies were eaten and the carrot had a big bit taken out of it. Hmmm...wonder how that happened? Maybe we do play that game after all!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just love the picture of all of us in our bathrobes. Why aren't you in the picture? Oh, right, you had to be the one to take it. Anyway, you are right, Christian loved playing the part of the shepherd. He especially liked the staff we brought for himn to use. Making Memories!!

Sarah Joy said...

I love the shepherds dinner, how cute is that?! The pictures are just priceless! And we had the same issue with Santa this year. After years of instilling the kids with the truth of Christmas someone decided he wanted to believe in Santa... it was cute.

Sarah Joy said...

Can you email me that family picture in front of your tree? I love it, you all look so beautiful! We need to put that one up in our family room!