christmas came and went all too quickly again this year. but, we had a special celebration, nonetheless, remembering and honoring the birth of Jesus our Savior! we had a full house on christmas with my sister and nate, my cousin and her family, and my aunt and uncle from california over to celebrate.
we went out and got a tree the weekend just after thanksgiving. the kids were so excited that we even got them colored lights for the tree this year. i gave up my white lights! allan strung the lights and we let the kids decorate the tree all on their own, however they liked. they did a great job! and, i loved every minute of sitting on the couch with my hot coffee watching them dance around the tree trying to scatter the ornaments all over. well, about two weeks after this, we discovered that our tree had died. :( i was not about to take down all of the ornaments, get a new tree, and put all of the ornaments back on. plus, the year before, our tree actually toppled over in the middle of the night scaring me and allan to death and causing us some middle-of-the-night clean up duty. as a result, we decided to start a new tradition of having our manger scene be the center of our celebration and i LOVED it. we set it up more prominently in the room and put our gifts to one another under it. it was a great way for us to remember the most amazing gift of all, our Savior Jesus Christ, whom God sent us over two thousand years ago. it was a great way for us to fix our eyes on the true meaning of christmas. and, i think i'm gonna love our new tradition.
our manger scene
opening stockings on christmas eve
christmas eve dinner...hot pot!
family quiet time
shoeboxes for operation christmas child. we found out they got sent to peru! :)
topping off our tree (that died!)
light show at senske in kennewick. the lights are timed to go along with music. lucas, emma, and allan jumped into the bed of the truck and started dancing to the music! i was too cold, brrrrr. elise fell asleep.
my sweet aunt...so glad she came to visit!
