Ironically, since I'm just getting this up here in almost February, this was actually our first Christmas celebration - at Grammie & Papa's! I managed to not get a single picture, so these are all courtesy of my lovely SIL Betsy...
I'm sharing these pictures even though they're not mine because this was one of my favorite memories this Christmas... For a couple of years, I've been waiting until the kids were old enough to act out the nativity. I love love LOVE the idea of having this be a tradition they will remember, and I think it is a good way to make the real meaning of Christmas (about which I tend to obsess) concrete in their little brains. We all had a part, and everyone played along really well. Annalise was in her ELEMENT, and directed multiple practice sessions leading up to opening day.
For dessert, in addition to pie and other traditional Christmas desserts, we had birthday cupcakes and sang happy birthday to Jesus. I think the kids' favorite part about that is that Jesus doesn't mind that they help blow out His candles. We spread the candles out, so that each kid could blow one out for Jesus.
We videotaped our Christmas play, but I'm going to put that in a separate post b/c I'm not sure how it will come in... But here are the pictures!
