On the seventh day of Christmas... I finally posted our Christmas pictures!
We did our usual Christmas tree cutting + decorating on Christmas Eve, and so far we've only broken one ornament (okay, two), so my strategy of only buying ornaments that we can't possibly break is working great!
Lucy is in heaven with the tree in the house, because outdoors is her favorite place to be and now it feels like we've brought the outdoors in to her! She keeps crawling into the tree and then getting really confused when the branches hit her in the face. Now I just need to get her to quit yanking the lights off... I'm really not convinced this tree is making it all the way to Candlemas!
On Christmas morning I was up bright and early for some weird reason and took advantage of it by getting cinnamon rolls in the oven (word of advice: the kids did NOT care about these at all because they filled up on breakfast goodies from their stockings, so bake them on a morning when they'll actually enjoy them. They were VERY good though, and I might never use a recipe other than this one because it was the softest sweet dough I've ever had. Too much icing for us, though, could have gotten away with half). There was a gorgeous misty sunrise and finally everybody woke up and enjoyed stocking goodies for a while before we headed to Mass.
Lucy in her bonnet and dress is maybe one of my favorites ever. I need to get a picture of her alone in that getup because she was so stinking cute!! She kept the bonnet on through the Gospel, then yanked it off and I'll admit, I distracted her with the Christmas tree in the lobby to get her to keep it on after that...
John Paul served Mass and ended up getting to be a torch bearer, he was SO proud to be doing something besides just sitting choir. He asked everyone he knew afterwards if they had noticed him, so very humble... We'll get there! I'm so glad he has the opportunity to serve whenever he wants now, and Peter is so excited to be big enough to serve as well!
One last thing... In the family picture above, do you see Elizabeth's necklace and Cecilia's scarf? Both presents from their Christkindls, and both their absolute favorite gifts! (Ummm I want that scarf!) One of the moms from our homeschool group arranged a "St. Nick's Closet" event, which is basically people donating things for kids to "shop" from for their family members, so each kid got something for their Christkindl and then Elizabeth sweetly chose something for me and Cecilia got something for my mom. These were their absolute favorite gifts!! So bookmark this idea for sure, if you do Christkindls do the gift exchange on Christmas Eve to make it more special, and try a St. Nick's Closet event at your parish if you can.
PETER is old enough to serve? I thought you had to have received First Communion before you could serve!
ReplyDeleteNo, he's excited *for when he is* big enough to serve. But the little boys don't have to have received their first communion to serve at EF Masses. They *do* need to be able to sit still, though 😉
DeleteWe've done sibling gift exchanges on Christmas Eve, and it really does make them special!
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute Christmas family photo!! We have the same dress with red roses! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
ReplyDelete