Christmas Eve fun

After all the festivities of the previous week at Beaver Creek it was time for...more family time!!  We had to quickly regroup after our flight home on Saturday, unpack, clean, shop and be in the Christmas spirit for Christmas Eve on Monday.  Whew, it was exhausting, but we were ready to party by Christmas Eve afternoon.  We visited Grammy and Pappap's church for Christmas Eve service.  They did a wonderful job illustrating the beauty of God's gift to us, then asked if anyone wanted to give their life to Christ.  Maura raised her hand to accept Christ, bringing a well of emotion to her momma's eyes.  I don't know if this is a true commitment at this age, but it is a definite indication of Maura's heart for the Lord and desire to serve Him with her life.  We pray that she will continue to seek after Christ and desire a relationship with Him that will grow.  She is truly a spiritually minded child, who likes to ponder big ideas, so we just pray that she will continue to think on the things of Christ.  Praise God for His faithfulness in helping us to grow up children of faith!

My beautiful, sweet, precious girl was so ready to celebrate Christmas this year.  Every single day when we reviewed the calender in December, she and Tristan would count down the days till Christmas.  It was so much fun to relive my childhood excitement through my children!  Emerson, of course, had no idea it was Christmas, but she was a pretty big fan of all the attention she was getting from her many aunts, uncles and cousins!

It was so nice to have Jeff home with us for Christmas.  He'll be moving to Italy in a few days, so we enjoyed our extended visit with him as it may be awhile till we see him again.  Lorie and Micah were with us all of Christmas after being with Micah's family for the past few years.

Brad and Emily REALLY enjoyed their breaks from school.  Brent and I enjoyed Christmas Eve meal even though we had to keep up a running dialog that sounded something like this: "Tristan, get back in your seat.  Maura, eat your food.  Bennett, stop putting your fork in your juice.  Alex, get your hand out of your juice, Maura, eat your food.  Bennett, stop touching your brother.  Tristan, stop pushing your brother.  Maura, eat your food!!!!"  Really relaxing!

I love this one!!  Uncle Scott is always popular with the kids because he riles them up and runs around with them.  Scott, you need to use this as a profile picture!  Alex was pretty excited about Christmas too.

Pretty soon it was present opening time!  The kids were in a frenzy of present anticipation, but we made them pose for the obligatory photos.  I love that Maura and Tristan are such good buddies these days.  I hope they always remain close to one another. 

Rapunzel!  Maura is almost out of the doll phase completely and could really care less about princesses these days, but she'll make an exception for Rapunzel.  She got Flynn Rider too.

Scott bought us all these cute hats.  He meant to give them to us in Colorado, but it didn't happen, so we received them on Christmas Eve instead, which made for some really cute photos.  Bennett looked like the kid from Fat Albert as the hat spent most of the night covering his eyes. 

Maura was very, very helpful when it came time to open the adult gifts.

Mmm, can't wait to eat some of the pies she's going to make with that rolling pin.  Katie took the time to etch a custom pie plate for Emily too.  It turned out so cute!  Emily was the founder of our Christmas Eve feast.  She prepared our custom ordered calzones, complete with initial on top to distinguish the consumer. 

Mom was thrilled to have all her chicks under one roof.  Jeff lives so far away that it's not often that our whole family is together at one time.  I know she loved the family time.

I figured I'd better take the opportunity to pose with Jeff.  He says he'll visit at least once a year, but I know how close he'll be the the Italian Alps and who knows if he'll make good on that promise!  We also took the opportunity to take a timed hat photo.  I'm still shocked that all the kids looked at the camera until it beeped!  Must have been the novelty of the situation!

Pretty soon, it was time to head home and make our preparations for Santa's arrival.  Don't be fooled by the photo, it was NOT bare feet weather.  For some reason, my kids hate shoes and socks!   I guess we're true Kentucky natives.  We sprinkled Reindeer food all over our driveway and yard to attract Rudolf to our house.  Once inside, we filled a plate with cookies, milk and carrots and Maura proudly carried it to our fireplace.

The kids COULD NOT WAIT.  This year is the most excited they've ever been about Christmas and I was sure they weren't going to be able to sleep all night, but somehow sleep took them all so that Santa could come for a visit.  We couldn't wait to see if he liked his snack or what he would bring us!