Christmas Eve

 A little family picture on Christmas Eve morning.

 I can't believe how grown-up they look!

 Cousins!

 Must get a silly picture in!

 Opening presents. They got a lot of legos, Xander got a cool remote control car, Will got these machines with gears you have to build and Grace got arts and crafts. I think they also got books, DVD's and some video games.

Here is a picture of them dressed up nicely for church. They clean up pretty well!

We spent all of Christmas Eve over at the Niebuhrs again this year. We went over in the morning and ate a big lunch. Lisa and Chad tried their skills at beef wellington - apart from a small kitchen fire, it was a success. We opened presents, played and talked all afternoon. About 3:30 the party broke up and everyone went their separate ways to get ready for Christmas Eve church. We had to be there at 4:30 to rehearse bells, the kids choir and Orff. We had a busy church service - the kids played/sang 3 songs with the choir. Brian and I played bells and I helped with the choir on the 2 Orff songs! It all turned out really lovely - we got lots of compliments and it made for a great Christmas Eve service. After it was finally all over and cleaned up (around 7:00!) we went back to the Niebuhrs for soup and cookies. We finally called it a night around 9. The kids were still super excited for Santa (they were still believing even yet this year) and went to bed the fastest they ever have before!