Christmas - Part 1 (Christmas Eve)

We have had a wonderful Christmas this year. My entire family was home this year. I have had such a nice time spending some time with them. My nephew Andrew is getting so big. I have really enjoyed cuddling with him.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my parent's home. We had a wonderful dinner. My mom is such a good cook. I love being in the kitchen with her and learning new things. After dinner, we gathered for a little Christmas Eve program. We dressed the kids up as Mary, Joseph and Jesus. This was more for a picture opportunity than anything. Mikayla is really understanding the true meaning of Christmas though. She wanted to stay in her Mary costume all night. I got the fun task of holding the "Living Nativity" participants. Gavin wasn't very excited about his costume. This was the only way that we could even attempt to get them all together for a picture.
After our family program, we all opened gifts. We all got lots of nice things from our family. One of Mikayla's favorite presents was the large dinosaur that my parents gave her and Gavin. The dinosaur can supposedly hold up to 140 pounds (I haven't tested it for fear of finding out that I am too big for it!)
As the evening was coming to a close, we dressed the kids in the coordinating Christmas jammies. Mikayla was so excited to be able to hold Andrew. She loves getting next to him and talking to him.
When we finally got home, we quickly put out some milk and cookies for Santa and then put out some reindeer food for Rudolph. After all, we had to make sure that Rudolph could find our house.