Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009

For Christmas Eve the last three years, we have re-enacted the Nativity Story. The pictures below are of the preparation. Danielle had everyone's costume ready with choices for details like if whether Dad and Drew wanted a straight or curly beard drawn on their face. They both got out of doing a beard altogether somehow. Danielle is also the one who thought of turning the snuggies backwards for robes.

The pictures here below are us in full gear. At the end of the night, we left some cookies for Santa.

Here are the kids coming down the stairs Christmas morning. Wait! We can't find the video camera. Wait! We need the Christmas music on. Wait! We STILL can't find the video camera!

Brinley

Drew
Drew had a special request for Santa: A cup of snow from the North Pole.

Drew also started a great new tradition. After I helped him wrap his presents for family members Christmas Eve, except the one for me, he said, "Okay, now I need 5 sheets of paper." I guessed what he wanted to do and asked if he didn't mean 4. Yes, that is what he meant. He proceeded to write a personal note to each person in the family to accompany their gift, sealed in an envelope and everything. Danielle followed. After all the gift giving, Dean mentioned to all that those were his favorite part of the morning. Amen.

Danielle

I wanted them to all open their present from Mom and Dad together. Here is their reaction to Danielle and Drew's new DSis and Brinley's Dora DS game. (Brinley was supposed to realize at this point that Danielle's pink DS was officially hers. She had already claimed it was hers though, so I guess it was a formality).

After it was all over, Dean made scones for everyone. Then he promptly went to bed. He got really sick around mid morning. He hugged a hot pad and drank chicken noodle soup for the next two days. So, the kids and I had our Christmas dinner without Dad. Then Danielle, Drew and I sang Christmas songs while we cleaned up. Everyone was a good sport about it. At least he got to be functional for the morning :)

This was in the bookcase at the bottom of the stairs for Christmas. Brinley didn't like the fact that the tree substituted for the 'e' instead of being right in the middle. I came down stairs a few times during Christmas time finding different versions :)
But whatever your version, just believe alright! Believe that there is still a lot of good in this world, believe that there are "santas" everywhere, all around us. Believe in our Savior and His words. Believe.