Christmas Eve Night

We went to our church's Christmas Eve service at 4:30, then came home and watched the first half of It's a Wonderful Life while eating dinner in the family room. When everyone was finished eating, we had our own family devotions. My hubby likes to read the entire story of Jesus' first coming, starting with the prophecy of His coming in Isaiah, and finishing with the visit of the Magi. This is always a very special time for me, personally. This year we did something new and instead of just my hubby praying, we went around the room and everyone said outloud what they would say to Jesus if He were visible in our family room. That was very interesting for me, as a parent, to hear what each of the children had to say. Afterwards we dug into our presents!

Here is a delightful picture to start off with. ;-) Son G with the false teeth that one of his siblings gave him!



Little Man gave a sword to son G, and son G gave the very same sword to his brother L without knowing it!


Son G desperately wanted this telescoping stack of 150 crayons. When he grows into more expensive gifts I am going to miss these days!


Son C with his longed for playmobil set!



And son L with his longed for playmobil set.




Sons G and L, falling prostrate with joy on top of their most desired gift. And what would that be you ask?


The Lego "Agent Mobile Command Center". They almost didn't get this. It turned out to be one of the hot sellers this year, and was impossible to find in any store or at Lego.com. There were several on ebay but the auctions were ending at $50 plus over retail price. We finally found one on ebay that was a direct sale (not an auction) and only slightly over retail, so we snatched it up. We were so happy to be able to give this to them! It is really, really cool up close and personal. It does pretty much every single spy related thing you can think of.


Daughter G reading her gift certificate for 8 horse riding lessons!




And last but not least, Little Man with his Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree and velcro letters! We love the book, and he wanted to read it right away while putting the letters on the tree as I read them.


A few highlights for me were......

Little Man, looking around the church and then whispering to me as we sat at the candlelight Christmas Eve service, "God is here."

The huge hug I got from L after he received his playmobil set.

Son G saying, "thank you a million times" for the Lego Agent set he and L received. He said this every 15 minutes for the rest of the evening!