Last year we started a fun Christmas Eve tradition of going out to breakfast, then visiting some people who might be lonely. We were lucky and Kevin had Christmas Eve off again, so we did it again. It was even better to have my mother dear join us in our fun (and my father dear joined in the visiting, though he stayed with Grandpa Mitchell during breakfast, so he missed that fun).
Cute little Mari Elf! She didn't get a whole lot out of our breakfast excursion, but she did enjoy a few bites of our pancakes and whipped cream!
Our festive Santa hats have a cute and sweet story to go with them. Madeline's school had various activities (sports, games at recess, dress up days, etc.), which the students could participate in if they brought a dollar. Madeline brought money for quite a few of them. I didn't know a whole lot about where the money was going, but she had money for it, and was excited about bringing it. She also bought each of us a Santa hat for $2 a piece! (That's $14 in Santa hats!). She wrapped them and gave them to us before Christmas.
Later, I learned more about where the money went. The school collects it in jars, then at the beginning of Christmas break, they give each jar to a person/family in need. One of the teachers from the school is in our ward, and Madeline was able to go with her to deliver two of the jars. One was to a man in our ward whose wife had recently passed away, the other lady I did not know. The jars they delivered contained a total of $1000! The school collected a total of $2400. Madeline had donated $26 (!) of her own money to the cause. That's a lot for a 9 year old! I was really happy that she was able to help deliver them.
After breakfast, we visited Grandpa Mitchell for a while, then some of our ward members living at Hiland Estates. It always makes me so grateful for my health whenever I visit a care center--I do not look forward to getting old, but I hope Heavenly Father will grant me patience and understanding when that time comes!
We just love it when Grandma Kathy comes to visit! Grandpa Reese came as well, but spent most of the time with Grandpa Mitchell, so we didn't see a whole lot of him.
Anna started off our traditional Christmas Eve program with a darling rendition of "Away in A Manger." She knows all three verses!
This lovely pose has really nothing to do with her performance of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but she seemed to think it was appropriate!
Eliza played "Oh Come Little Children," a lovely, though little known Christmas carol.
Camilla performed her own arrangement of "Silent Night." She loves to pick out melodies on the piano and does a great job of it!
Madeline practiced many, many Christmas songs all up through Christmas so we wouldn't know what song she was going to be performing--we were surprised with "Angels We Have Heard On High."
My dad gave us quite an interesting history of Charles Dickens--he (my dad) was a huge fan of Paul Harvey, and could have done a great rest of the story on ol' Charles. It really was pretty cool to learn!
I spent the year memorizing "The Family--A Proclamation to the World" and recited it while we watched photos of my beautiful family. Bet you all wish you could have been there. I'll say it for you sometime.
I love, love, love, this little nativity costume set my mom gave us. It's so cute, plus I never have to spend Christmas Eve hunting down bathrobes! Yes, we always have some fights over the cane, and Natalia had to be wiseman/shepherd because she really loved the crown, but it's an awesome set to have!
My kids rearranged this nativity set a few times each week. I always intended to take a picture each time it was rearranged because it was always so cute and unique, but I never got around to it until Christmas Eve. Maybe next year.
Love your Christmas Eve tradition of going out for breakfast and visiting the nursing home. So, so sweet. And I'm TOTALLY impressed that you memorized the Proclamation on the Family--Wow, wow, and more wow. What other mother of six (or mother of any amount of children) pulls that off? You are stellar, Lind.
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