Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve - Family Time


I thoroughly enjoyed the family traditions we started last year, our first Christmas at home since having kids. So this year I was looking forward to continuing them. Because we were headed to my dad’s for Christmas day, we decided to have our own family Christmas time on Christmas eve.

Our morning started out with an empty manger and the story of Christ’s birth. The kids enjoyed moving the figurines around as the story unfolded: Mary and Joseph traveling a long distance on their donkey, Christ’s birth, the angels and shepherds rejoicing, the wise men seeing the Christmas star and traveling to see the Christ child, etc. I have had this manger scene since college. My mom got it for me my freshman year. Most pieces are chipped and many have a layer of gorilla glue holding limbs and heads in place. I’ve considered swapping it out for a little people nativity set, but there’s something about the delicacy of the pieces that adds excitement to the fact that the kids actually get to touch the pieces and “play” with them. I think I will hold onto it until the pieces are unrecognizable! :)

After the Christmas story, the kids looked in their stockings to find many treats and trinkets that we acquired on our China trip. And then we headed to the front room for presents. I think my favorite part was seeing Caroline pass around presents that she had picked out and wrapped for each person...and when I say picked out, I really mean picked out from around the house! Some of the gifts technically already belonged to that person, but she still took such joy in figuring out what each person would enjoy and then taking care to package them up just right! And for my girl who is not naturally bent towards “giving”, it was a great joy to see her doing that...all on her own!

Later that afternoon we loaded up and headed to Cut N Shoot, TX to enjoy time with extended family.























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