Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve:

We went to my Mom's house and ate...a lot.

We always have great food on Christmas Eve at my mom's house and lots of it. She is an awesome cook!
The kids then dressed up and my Dad read the nativity story while the kids acted it out. (sorry some of my pictures are really crappy and I am trying not to care, but I do, but I am trying not to)My cute niece Eden was Mary. This picture was taken just moments before the baby Jesus was born. Eden was the perfect choice to play Mary, she is a perfect little Mommy!


Lets not confuse the virgin Mary with my sister Mary who was also at my mom's house with her cute new baby Rachel. I mentioned not confusing the two Mary's because Sydney was having a very hard time telling the difference between all the different Mary's that she has been hearing about this Christmas season. She even asked my sister Mary if she had gone to Bethlehem with Joseph. She also kept saying to my sister "Mary Christmas Mary!!" She would only say "Mary Christmas" to Mary and and no one else. I think she thought that the phrase was made up especially just for her Aunt Mary.


Here is the after shot of Eden/Mary when the Baby Jesus came out of her belly.

Cute Tolman boy was Joseph.


We tried to convince Sydney that she should be the angel in the nativity story but she told us no. When I asked her what she wanted to be she told us that she wanted to be the.......
Donkey. She crawled around on her hands and knees saying "Wee-Haw" in a very reverent voice and stayed very close to the baby Jesus in his manger. It was so dang cute!!


She took her job as the donkey very seriously! Wee-haw.

Tait was a Shepard. I think he was also part sheep dog, because he spent most of the time with his little toy lamb in his mouth. He is a great multitasker!

Brock was a sheep. He was very tired and kind of grumpy so I was totally surprised when he came in with Tait and sat down at the side of the manger and watched the baby Jesus just like all the other kids did.
Cute little sheep. He wore his costume for about two minutes before he took it off.
Kimball was our only wise man but he looked awesome. He was the best wise man ever!

Here is Reeve holding up baby Joy, who was the Angel singing to the shepherds from the heavens. Cutest little angel ever.
This was seriously the funnest little Christmas pagent ever. The kids where so reverent as they acted out the different characters and you could tell that they understood how important the Nativity story is. I hope that we do this every year.

After the nativity story Grandma read the little kids a story. They all crowded around and listened very intently to it. Eden was sitting next to Brock. She reached over and pulled him onto her lap and he was only to happy to cuddle with her. I was trying my hardest not to giggle and disrupt the story but it was so cute watching her be a little mother to my little boy.


Then little Eden had one arm around Brock's back andused her other arm to cover him with his blanket. He is nearly as big as she is yet she still wrapped her short little arms around him and rocked him back and forth. I am sure she has seen her own mother do this very same thing to her little brother and sister many, many, times. What a great example my sister has made for my cute little niece. Eden girl is going to be an amazing mother some day!

Then for the traditional Christmas eve jammies.

New jammies are so exciting!!

All the kids in their new P.J.'s.

Rachel in her new P.J.'s that matched baby Joy's, but I am not putting the picture up because blogger is being stupid and this post is taking forever so just imagine how cute they would be in their matching jammies.

And then we got home just in time to write a letter to Santa and Rudolph. Put out a popcorn ball and some fudge for Santa(I totally didn't have time to make cookies) and some carrots and a bowl of water for Rudolph(Sydney's idea) then both kids where in bed. It was a very fun Christmas eve!

Next post Christmas Day **If I can get the pictures to upload with out my internet crashing**