Christmas

Christmas this year was a little different for us. My parents were out in Utah with my sister Aubrey while the rest of us were at my parents house. Since grandma and grandpa weren't going to get home until after Christmas, it meant we were on our own. Lauren and I got up WAY TOO EARLY to go grocery shopping on the 23rd at Wegmans. We were in charge of all the food for the week for 6-8 adults and 4 kids.

Christmas Eve was interesting. We had all these plans and basically all of them fell through. We were going to take the kids to see the trains at the fire station, but they were closed, so the kids went to the playground instead and braved the cold for a few minutes of outdoor fun.

We were going to go downtown (DC), but then decided to go a different day. Then that night, we were going to see Christmas lights, but the place we went to was closed and the lights they had were pitiful. So we drove over to the firestation to see the trains (they were open later that night). But, to top it off, we got home too late to do our Nativity play. Figures.

My incredibly gorgeous little sister Mallory getting some good snuggle time in with Kayla.

Kayla's Christmas outfit and her blanket were almost an identical red color. I think it made the camera go a little trippy.

Christmas Morning! Thank goodness Santa found us all!

Here's Abby posing with a game that isn't hers.

Carson with his robot dinosaur. A few weeks ago Andrew asked Carson what would happen if Santa couldn't find a robot dinosaur, Carson answered, "No Christmas. No Christmas for anyone." Luckily, Santa braved the insane lines at Toys R Us on a Saturday afternoon to find this gem.

Abigail is very much into anything princess, so she was very excited to get her Cinderella dress. She was eating candy, so her mouth is all red.

Lauren and I made FABULOUS breakfast casseroles and then mastered the Christmas feast. I had to take a picture because I was so proud. The only thing we didn't make was the cranberry sauce. We had frozen some from Thanksgiving.

We brined our turkey and it tasted fabulous!

Since we didn't have time to do our nativity play on Christmas Eve, we ended up doing it on the 26th in the afternoon.

Mallory at first did not want to participate, but we finally coaxed her into dressing up. I had to take a picture to remember her wonderful costume. :-)

The whole cast. Abby was the angel; Carson was Joseph; Kayla was baby Jesus; Riya was Mary; Evan and Landon were wisemen/kings; Mallory, Justin, and Lauren were shepherds. Andrew was the narrator and I was the cameraman. Riya didn't want to ride on our donkey (i.e. Mallory's old Eeyore stuffed animal), so Carson rode on it. It was too funny!

More to come from our crazy Christmas holiday!