Our Christmas Eve...

Our Christmas Eve was a very fun one this year. I love how Ben says, "Merwy Kissmis!"

This was Andrew's first Christmas and we all had fun making a big deal over him. He's so sweet!

The kids read in their "Friend" magazine about a family who has the Christmas tradition of making a white birthday cake to remember that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus. They loved the idea so we copied it. We made two birthday cakes. The one Nick decorated went to a family that we took Christmas dinner to and the one Tiana decorated stayed with us. They decided on which cake went to which family. They had a great time decorating and it really helped they focus on the real reason why we celebrate.

Here is Tatiana with her birthday cake for baby Jesus. Can you see the manger with baby Jesus in it and the stable with the star on top? Good job sweetie!

At 4:00, I took dinner to a family we know. I had two other friends help in the food preparations so it wasn't such a big deal. Then at 5:00 we had another family over for dinner, we had a nice ham dinner with all the fixings. Then we watched a Nativity cartoon. After the movie we had the birthday cake for dessert and had a good time visiting.

About the same time our friends were getting ready to leave we received a phone call from our other friends who live up the street. Rachel's (she is my Brownie co-leader I mentioned in a previous post) dad owns a limo company and they were going out to look at Christmas lights around town. Her siblings were unable to come along for various reasons so they invited us to come! So a little after 8:00 we were picked up in a hummer limo to go view the Christmas lights! The kids had so much fun and it was such a treat for us all!

Oh, and their Grandpa (the owner of the limo company) just got a cute new puppy and they brought her along and that was a treat too!

We stopped by a particularly decked-out house set to music and we all got out. Here are the kids out in front of the house. Everyone except Andrew.

Here is our family in front of the limo. This was the children's first time in one and they loved it. Nathan and I went in one of his other limos a couple weeks ago. For our office Christmas party this year Nathan rented a limo, we had everyone picked up at the office, went out to dinner in Salem, and then went to see the light display in Keiser. It was a fun evening.

When we got home we let the children open up one present. Ben and Nick got soft robes, Tatiana got new pajamas (she already has a soft robe), and Andrew got new pajamas that say "Baby's 1st Christmas". They didn't get to bed until after 10:00! What a fun-filled wonderful day!