Christmas Eve with both sides of the family!

This year we were excited for The Big Guy Lowe's Mom, brother (with his wife and 5 kids), and sister to join my extended family's celebration on Christmas Eve!

We had fun sharing our family traditions with so many others, and it made me feel happy that my mother-in-law would want to share that evening with my family too.  Because The Big Guy Lowe and I have chosen not to travel during the holidays during this time in our family's life, we have made sure to invite Ilene to join us when she isn't celebrating with her other children.  It was fun!

We had the candles!

And of course we had our portrayal of the Nativity as found in Luke 2.

It was pretty fun as many of the cousins on the "Lowe" side of the family were participating.

Everyone getting ready with Grammy HB leading the way.

Time to begin with Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem.  (I remember as a little girl having my dad be the donkey.  We always thought that was so funny!)

Gunnison was a very tender-hearted Joseph.  Look!  There's The Big Guy Lowe and I cuddling on the couch!!  So cute!

Here's a shot of Brett and Cannon with J and us in the background. 

It's important to remember how bright the star was and Ethan did a great job holding it up high! 

G was a solemn shepard.  (Gotta love the Burberry plaid outfit) 

 

Group shot. 

It was a fun evening that we all seemed to enjoy.  Thanks Mom and Dad for opening your doors to extended family and friends.  We always look forward to this evening! 

(PS. Thanks to Laura for taking the pictures!  I didn't bring my camera and was grateful to use some shots that she took throughout the evening!!)

Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas eve holds a fun place in my heart.  I have my little-girl memories of Christmas eve when we lived in Wisconsin--each of us were able to choose our very most favorite food to eat that night!  Nutrition went out the window for the evening as our favorite foods generally consisted of chips and jello.  I'm glad to say my tastes have developed in the persuing years and now The Big Guy Lowe gets to add his favorites too!  The second part of this feasting tradition centered on illunination for the evening--we would gather all the candles in the house and line them in the center of the kitchen table--only lighting them when it was time to eat.  I have magical memories of the candlelight glowing on our faces while we sat and ate fun foods with our family and friends...ahhh, wonderful memories!

Those memories continue to be created as the tradition lives on!  Oh how I love family traditions!  Thank you mom and dad for making our lives so full of wonderful events!

We still gather all the candles in my parent's home and line the dining room tables with them.

We still make and bring favorite fun foods for all to enjoy!

We also still have a reenactment of the Nativity, but now all the roles are taken by the grandkids.  :)

(Grammy helps everyone get their costumes ready--quite a feat when grandkid's ages range from 20 months to 18 years!)

Our favorite Wise Man.

See that cute shepherd peaking through the top of the banister, we claim him!

Then there are stories, games, singing Christmas hymns and songs and lots and lots of fun!

Finally, when it's time, we head home.  I love spending the holidays in our own home!  I love that our boys know they get to open one present that night, and that it's always pajamas!  This year their pajamas were space themed and they all matched!  I love it!  We also let them open a space book so we could learn a bit more about what's out there!

A plate of cookies were then set out--each of the boys were able to choose what cookie to leave for Santa, a mug of milk, and this year the boys chose to leave the reindeers lettuce, romain to be specific.  :)  Then our bedtime routine of prayers, scripture reading and songs.  It was a good night.

We love Christmas in our home.  We love precious truths celebrated through symbolic gestures and decorations.  We love blessings and peace that are ours because the Son of God was humbly born to Mary so many years ago.  My heart warms knowing of the love our Heavely Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ have for each of us.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve Breakfast

Christmas Eve is a special day for our family.  This year we decided to add something more to the festivities--Breakfast at McDonalds!  We don't do it too often, but it really is fun to take the kids out for breakfast and play with them in the play area (did you catch the "play with them?").  Oh yea, we don't mess around! 

This was the first time our littlest guy went to the very top--with daddy of course!

A pretty fun way to start a great day!