Christmas Eve/The Longest Day of My Life

The anticipation was killing us.  All of us.  I woke to the sounds of little feet running through the living room followed by laughter and excited voices.  I lay in bed still so that I can hear their conversations.  "Santa is coming tonight."  "Tomorrow is Jesus' birthday."  "We gotta make a birthday cake."  "Santa has reindeer and a sleigh." "Jingle will go home with Santa tonight."  "I'm gonna touch Jingle."  "Nooo!  DON'T touch him!"

Then the sprinting began.  And the bouncing.  And the flipping.  And the non stop talking.  They were so excited!!!  So in an effort to keep them busy and from destroying the house with all the flipping...

We wrapped gifts.

We did laundry.

We made treats.

We baked cookies.

We spoke in a British accent.

We dressed puppy and Taylor in Christmas clothes.

We colored.

We cleaned the living room.

Four times.

We danced like rockstars.

We reenacted the first Christmas.

We learned how to say Merry Christmas in Italian.

We watched Christmas movies.

We cleaned the kitchen.

Six times.

We cleaned bedrooms.

We played.

We made a birthday cake for Jesus.

And...it was only lunch time!!!

Merry Christmas!

Today our hearts rejoice in Him.

Today the light of His birth

thrills us with hope

and brings peace on earth.

Jesus, born on this day;

He is our Light and Salvation.

Jesus, born on this day;

He is the King of all nations.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

{2 Corinthians 9:15}

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas as you celebrate our Savior's birth!

this Christmas

Just like yours, has been busy.  Didn't this Christmas season just fly by!!!  I haven't posted much because where did the time go?  So, here are a ton of phone pics of this Christmas season...

LOVE spending time with these crazies!

Hip Hip Hooray!  We had a "snow day"!

They were totally mesmerized by The Sound of Music.

Grace and I spent our "snow day" making paper snowflakes.

We FROZE and had a fun time at the Christmas Parade with some of our favorite people!

A girl that John teaches with gave us her Tigers' tickets and we all got to go!

I think he was pumped to have his kids watching the Tigers with him!

I think she is part elf!

"Help!"  He's fallen and he can't get up!

Grace and I went to our church's Christmas program and Starbucks!

At this Happy Birthday, Jesus party, we made a nativity, decorated cookies, and ate birthday cake!

We snuggled and watched a favorite Christmas movie!  Smiling's my favorite!!!

We finally got to meet sweet baby June!

Carter was Spiderman.

Our Christmas elf, Grace, was at it again!!!

We crafted.  With glue.

We went to our Candlelight Christmas Eve Eve service.

Then, we got into our Christmas jammies, grabbed a warm drink, turned on our favorite Christmas jams, and looked at Christmas lights.

Pretty Christmas lights are...well, pretty.  But, the tackier they are the "funner"!

One more day until Christmas!!!

our little christmas cow

Grace was a cow in our church's children's Christmas program (aka: The Singing Christmas Bush).  She did a wonderful job singing about our Savior's birth!  I'm sure the cows were singing when baby Jesus was born in their stable on that first Christmas day.  Don't you think so?

All creation, come praise the name of the LORD.  Praise his name alone.  The glory of God is greater than heaven and earth.

{Psalm 148:13}

the halls are decked

a few of my favorite moments in our christmas home...