Finishing out Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve ~ 5:15 pm

Following our reindeer dusting we piled back into our car to head to the Christmas Eve service at church. It was an awesome service with a dramatic portrayal of Mary, traditional and contemporary music, scripture reading, and two giant paintings being done live. Both artists were very talented and the art work so well summed up Christmas. Kate painted Mary holding Jesus in bold colors and Traci (my sister) painted Jesus laying in the manger with a shadow of the cross. As usual, we were among the last to leave the sanctuary as we lingered to wish dear friends Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve ~ 8:00 pm

From church we headed to my Aunt Nancy's for our yearly fondue feast.

"Quit taking pictures and let's eat!"
Kylie with one of her favorite people on the planet ~ Unca Adham. He is usually the first person she thanks Jesus for at night.

Yes my friends, we do it up right! We start with a cheese course, follow with meat (steak, chicken, and my aunt's homemade meatballs), and then do ourselves in with chocolate! 16 of us crowded around four pots and stuffed ourselves silly...

"Wanna bite?"
Kylie and Chloe clowned around over dessert.

Kylie and Chloe had been hugging and Caleb decided to show he would not be outdone on passing out hugs ~ even if his subject wasn't so sure...

And when the rest of us were sitting around quite miserable from all we had eaten, Traci somehow found the energy to play with the kiddos.

Technically Christmas morning ~ 12:30 am

Way too late we finally headed to our homes (or Mama's home) for our long winter's nap. Caleb sacked out after a few minutes in the car, but Kylie was too juiced up on chocolate and the sweets that she dipped, so she shared the story of baby Jesus with us before we headed for bed. (This was perhaps the highlight of my Christmas this year!)

"Once pon a time dere waz a man name Doseph and hiz wife name Mary and dey lif in the city of Nazref"
She really has gotten good at recalling the details though that night she left out the shepherds ~ guess she was shortening the story so that she could get to bed before Santa arrived...

Speaking of Santa, Kylie started flipping out when we told her she had to get to bed and could only be consoled when we promised her that Santa would not be coming into her room to talk. You know, I guess it is a bit creepy that he is able to come into our houses. When she finally realized that Santa was too busy to stop and chat, she excitedly chattered about baking Jesus some birthday cupcakes and hoping that Santa was going to bring her "Ehmo tom-pu-ter" as she drifted off to sleep beside Caleb on the pallate of blankets we used for their bed.

"While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads" ~ well, Caleb's expression would indicate he was dreaming of Sour Patch candy. Actually he was reacting to that funky thing the flash does before the picture takes in a dark room. Thankfully he didn't wake up!