Christmas Eve - 2016

We were so excited to have Matthew's family (minus sister Megan and her husband Colin) here with us for Christmas. It's been a long time since we've been with them for any holiday, and to have them leave Hawaii for Christmas for the first time since they moved to the island over 15 years ago, made us feel very loved.
Matthew's tradition is to have the the fancy dinner on Christmas Eve. Fine fine. We can accommodate that. It didn't occur to me, until about 5 minutes until dinner that the size of our group actually merited trying to make things look pretty. This is not my natural go to, especially since get togethers with my family end up with multiple tables and sofas, and paper products. But with only 8 adults that fit at my table, I realized our spread was going to look pretty lame for our beautiful Christmas dinner. Thankfully SIL Marie was quick to help me in my moment of need and between the two of us, we gathered curtains and other sundry items from around the house to put together a respectable table.

Dinner was lovely, made even more wonderful when I made assignments for food and everyone happily did their share to make the dinner completely yummy.

After dinner we repaired to the living room for my family's tradition of the nativity and one opened present. Even though only the Babes dressed up for the reenactment, it was still very precious. Cheeks immediately decided she wanted to be Mary and Boy Howdy, despite his previous year's objections, just as quickly opted for Shepherd. We got them arranged in my scarfs, gathered all their animals to witness the sacred event and made a makeshift manger in which to put the Christ child (complete with purple headband). Mary was so tender with her baby and Shepherd Boy Howdy took good care of his little sheep.
Matthew read the nativity story from our illustrated version of the New Testament and afterwards we let the kids open the presents they had picked out for each other. Growing up, my parents did this to ensure our gratitude for our presents from our siblings didn't get lost in the hubbub of Christmas morning. It is a tradition that will live on in our home as well.

The kids LOVED their presents from each other and I loved the joy they shared with each aspect of the exchange. These babies went to bed very happy.