Thursday, January 5, 2012

Christmas Eve

WAY back when I was in high school, my mom decided to start our family Christmas tradition with a Christmas Eve dinner. She wanted to make sure that as we grew up, got married, and had children we would know that Christmas Eve was a special time with our family. And what a special time it is. We always have an amazing candle lit dinner, a program, and open a "special gift". Early on, the program was short and consisted of each of us playing a little something on the piano. As we got married we sometimes threw in our spouses. One year Rick and I even mixed things up with a recorder duet! Now that we have children we are off the hook and get to sit back and enjoy watching our children perform. This year in addition to the program we had a wonderful nativity program complete with speaking parts, vocal solos, and beautiful violin music. I'm so greatful to my mom for the traditions and memories that we have and continue to make.




All the grandkids in their new Christmas pajamas.

You may have noticed in the above picture that Noah was really doing his best posing for the camera!
The nativity cast.
Here are my little cuties!



Luke was the wisest wiseman, Noah was Joseph (and couldn't have been more pleased that Mia was Mary), Elijah was the happiest little shepherd (despite what he looks like in the picture), and Liv was a beautiful angel (just like she really is!).



I was so proud of Noah because his part included singing a solo. I was certain that he wouldn't want to do it so I made Luke practice it just in case. But, Noah practiced and practiced and performed his heart out that night. It might have been a little off pitch, but to me it was perfect. Elijah also sang a solo (which was suppose to be a duet with his partner shepherd who really just wanted to be a pirate and left the production in tears) and if you listened REALLY carefully, you could almost hear him! Oh well, it was the best a little shepherd boy could do.


The food was amazing, the program was great, the nativity was touching, but the best part of the evening was spending time with my family. The best gift ever!