Our Family Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas.  The kids got along, we had great food and fun conversations,  the kids opened up fun gifts.  It was wonderful.

A rare moment I had to capture. Natalie loves to cuddle, Cyrena doesn't but this time, it was Christmas after all, she indulged her.

Our neighbors set up luminaries to line the street.  The girls and David helped set them up earlier in the afternoon and then we all went out to help light them.  It made quite the runway for Santa. 

We had a scrumptious dinner of chicken a la king with caesar salad and a fruit salad.  We sang some Christmas carols, read the Christmas story, watched some short videos from the church website and had a great discussion.

The girls were happy to open and put on their Christmas pajamas.  But no one was happier than Natalie for her winter nightgown and slippers.  This girl will only wear nightgowns so I had to find something that would keep her somewhat warm.

We sprinkled reindeer food on the lawn and put out cookies for santa.

The girls were spoiled this year as usual.  They had a lot of little things to open so that's always fun.  I was most excited about the plasma cars.  We found Cyrena's used on craigslist and Natalie's new at a discount store for almost the same price as the craigslist one!  Woo-hoo!

David and I woke up first, then Anna.  We brought her in our bed and had some fun making spitting noises.

Then Natalie joined us (they knew they were not allowed to go into the living room)

Finally we couldn't stand it anymore so we woke up Cyrena, this girl could sleep forever.  We didn't start opening presents until about 9, it was great!

David and I usually don't exchange gifts but this year I decided I wanted to get him a few fun things--the guy never asks for anything!! So we ended up buying for each other.

David's favorite gift.  I bought $10 gift cards for all the places he likes to grab something while he's out driving around for work.  Subway, Chik-fil-a, Taco Bell, etc.  He usually takes a lunch but sometimes he's out all day and can't heat anything up or keep anything cool in his truck.

For Christmas I just needed some kitchen things; mixing bowls, measuring spoons, etc.  So that was great!  But David also got me a ticket to see Wicked with some girls in the ward--I'm excited!

Ready for church.  We couldn't think of a better way to spend Christmas than being with those of our faith, singing praises to Him, and letting the spirit into our hearts.