Christmas Celebrations #1

Warning : This contains a lot of pictures that are not all in chronological order! :)

I decided to do two posts of the rest of our Christmas highlights and celebrations. We have had so much fun this year and are already looking forward to next year and all of the new fun things the boys will be doing then.

This is Jason's grandpa with Jacob and Rylan. Our boys are SO incredibly blessed to have 3 living great-grand-parents. All 3 hug them, sing to them and shower them with love every chance they get! Jacob really does love Papa even though he is screaming. I think we interrupted a riveting game of "drink from the empty cup" to take the photo!
One of the most fun things we did while "up north" was to ride the Polar Express. I always read the book to my class and usually teared up by the end. It was a magical train ride full of singing, dancing and a million photos! This is Justin, Karyn and Evan - Jason's brothers family.
Our boys were a little too young to fully appreciate just how NEAT this train ride really was, but they still had fun dancing to all the songs. But Jason and I fully appreciated every minute.
At the end of the ride, Santa came strolling down the center aisle as we all sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." I seriously got a choked up! Karyn said she did too, so I did not feel as silly. It was so magical to see Santa and have him walking down patting all the kids on the heads. Jacob and Rylan looked up at him is awe.
This is how we spent Christmas Eve... at the Pediatricians! Jacob had a fever all day Saturday and Sunday so when we got home Monday we went in to the office. It was a mad house. Turns out it was just a high fever virus - not an ear infection like we were all predicting. And the fever finally went away by Wednesday morning. For all you in the medical profession - thank you for loving your patients enough to work on holidays and calm down scared mommas and daddys!
Two weeks before Christmas, Jason's company had a fancy dinner that spouses were invited to attend. So we got fancied up and headed to the big city for a very swanky meal. My steak was $45...yes, $45 and it was fabulous!!! Jason's was about the same and we both got dessert too! Thanks to the company for a fun night out! Plus it was nice to meet most of Jason's team along with his boss.

Two Sundays ago the young family group at church hosted a Christmas luncheon for the older members of our congregation, the Lights. The fellowship hall was decorated beautifully and the soup, salad and dessert were devoured by all! It was nice this year that our family had 4 generations represented! The boys were in the nursery during the luncheon, but we brought them out for a photo. The younger men served the older couples and then they played several games of bingo.
Here is Rylan again chewing on the Nativity sheep. I added this photo to talk about our Wednesday night church service. Our youth minister created a quiz, much like "Are you Smarter than A 5th Grader?" about the birth of Christ. You got to work with your family to answer the 19 questions and then he gave us the right answers. Sadly, Jason and I only got 10/19. His point was that you must always check the Bible to know if you have the right answers. Sometimes you rely on tradition, or Hollywood, or books to get your information, but the Bible is our ONLY true source. He also strongly encouraged us all to read the Bible every day with our families to equip us all with scriptural basis for our beliefs. Thanks for an excellent lesson MK!!!
I could not resist bragging on our adorable niece, Evan! She is the best baby!!! Her pretty blue eyes are full of excitement and her face is always ready for a heart melting smile. Her two dimples are so cute! We love you sweet Evan!
This is before opening gifts up north. The kids would not cooperate for the perfect photo in front of the presents. Even though the perfect photo never happened, we still had lots of fun and many wonderful gifts were exchanged. Thank you sweet family!
Next time will be Christmas at home... watch out, I took 244 photos in 2 days!