Christmas Eve "Eve"

The girls were so beautiful for church the Sunday before Christmas. They were asked to sing with a small group of children (8 or so) as the opening number for the Choir's Christmas presentation. Caroline joined the group near the end - she insisted on staying for the last practice day when we dropped Lindsay off so Julie said she was welcome to join in. She sang both verses of the song just as if she had been to several practices like Lindsay. Lindsay has a higher voice, Caroline's is lower - they are so darling when they sing together. Nothing fancy, probably no vocal careers in their future, but they were excited to be a part of such a special day.

Christmas Eve "Eve" with The McGuire's, The Simpson's, and The Ashton's

Since we were leaving for Oregon Christmas Eve Morning, we spent Christmas Eve "Eve" with Molly's family, my Dad, and Debbie. Molly hosted a beautiful and delicious Roast Beef Dinner - oh my gosh - our family can make some great holiday meals if I do say so myself! No plastic molded ham, bag-o-salad, or instant mashed potatoes for us! You could practically smell the garlic from the Roast down the street. Molly has some beautiful holiday place settings and it is always a treat to be able to use them. A little something sparkle-y to drink...you had to roll us from the table. Molly asked me to make a Trifle for dessert - it was light and delicious after we were thru opening gifts.

The girls had so much fun with their cousins opening gifts and afterwards, playing int he mountains of gift wrap and tissue and ribbons. (They called it "Snow.") Lindsay was thrilled with the Polly Pocket sets she got from Grandpa and Debbie. (Mommy is not a fan - we all laughed about it - most parts get eaten by the vacuum - but she loves it!) Caroline is really enjoying her Ponyville play set as well. Molly made huge fluffy tutus for the girls - purple for Lindsay, blue for Caroline. Steve & I are very grateful for the emergency radio and pressure canner - helping towards our goals of emergency preparedness and my continuing interest in home canning. Tons of fun movies and we are good to go for a while! Debbie has a tradition of giving each family member a personalized ornament - it is a darling tradition. We (Molly and I) made several members of our family a personalized calendar. We decided to do a photo shoot last June in Colorado when we were visiting Meghan and knew we would use the pictures for Christmas gifts some how. We settled on the calendar and quickly ramped up our digital scrapbooking skills to make a really lovely calendar.