Christmas Lunch with Papa, Uncle Jim & Aunt Linda

We invited Papa, Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda for lunch on Christmas.  Nana was supposed to come too but wasn't feeling up to it.  The kids were too excited to wait for presents, so they opened them as soon as everyone arrived!

Abbey would love to have a shark-themed bedroom, so she was very happy about this poster!

 

Papa had a whole laundry basket full of presents for the kids!

Here are a few Aunt Linda shared on Facebook:

Logan and I worked hard preparing a feast for Christmas, and it was pretty darn good if I do say so myself! :)

Josiah loves to be in charge of lighting candles!

We did our final Advent service after lunch.  The kids sang a couple of their songs from the church program, the boys took turns reading from Luke 2, and we all prayed at Josiah's insistence.

It took Abbey a couple weeks into Advent before she was able to blow any candles out!  She would try and try and try, and now she has a nice strong breath. :)

When it was all said and done, Logan and I cleaned up and crashed.  :)  We had a visit from the Luttermans later that afternoon and then spent the entire day Friday in our pajamas!  It was a great Christmas and it was very nice to be home with our family in Maine. 

Christmas Morning

After MANY late nights and much work, Santa was ready for Christmas!  The kids got us up at 6:30 (not too bad!) and the unwrapping began!

We had them open their new pajamas from Daddy before they opened their other gifts, so they could be coordinated in the pictures. :)  Daddy did an awesome job!  He knitted the hats too!

The boys spent a lot of time playing with the Snap Circuits, and Abbey loved

this little wind-up shark!

Daddy got right to work making cheese biscuits for breakfast and a rub for the pork roast for lunch.

Ben worked hard putting this 3-D puzzle together!

December Snapshots

Here are some random shots from this month:

Josiah's cool Lego designs!

 

Big Daddy

Abbey made a smile!

 

Abbey's pre-K friends at co-op

All decorated for Christmas!

This was a looooong day!

Ben lost a front tooth!

Beautiful Children singing Christmas songs

Our kids sang three songs during the last portion of church today, and they were very excited to have this opportunity.  They didn't give us any trouble about dressing up (in new clothes from Grandma).

Then they had a run-through with Mrs. Lisa before church:

And they did an excellent job!  It was beautiful!  We snapped a few more pictures after church, while we had them dressed up. 

We look like a nice Jewish family in this picture. :)