Christmas Eve

I'm finally getting around to pulling pictures of Christmas off of Mark's memory card. Actually, it was Josh's memory card. I will do a post titled "Bad Luck, Part 3" later and explain. The short version is that UPS stinks.

Christmas Eve was a very, very snowy day. But Mark's family journeyed over the river and through the woods to our house for a fun evening. We had pot roast for dinner and gingerbread cookies and ice cream for dessert. Usually I think gingerbread cookies are disgusting--crunchy, stale--however I have a very good recipe for gingerbread cookies. I got it when we lived in Omaha from the Winter Quarters visitor center. I will post that later, too. So good.

After dinner, we had the usual nativity pageant acted out by the little 'uns while 10 cameras flashed them all blind. Those not in the pageant and not taking pictures watched the usual baby Jesus not wanting to stay in the laundry basket, and the shepherds wresting with the wise man. It is a little bit crazy, but it is a huge tradition, and the kids wait eagerly each year for Grandma to assign their roles. Following the nativity, Abram, Aubrey and Jake performed some musical numbers, and last but not least, the kids got to open their presents from Grandma. This year Mark's mom gave each of our kids a blu-ray movie. It was good, because it gave us plenty of entertainment for the long weekend.

I love having everyone at our house for get togethers. Feeding a crowd is something I do every meal, so it's not a big deal for me to feed a few more. This year we had 28. It's easier for me to have everyone here than to pack up our crew and go to somewhere else. More Christmas posts to follow...