All is Calm, All is Bright

Every year, on Christmas Eve, we attempt to turn our focus to the spiritual rather than the secular, with our family rendition of a Christmas pageant, using the same Christmas program script I put together 6 years ago.  Some years we've had family or friends with us to participate, but this year we were all on our own.  And with our house basically a sick bay, it was probably for the best.  Hahaha.  

For your enjoyment, I present this year's version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, featuring...

Mary

A resistant/non-participative Joseph and a semi-cooperative Angel

A Little Lamb

A Shepherd

A Wise Man

And a Narrator.

Songs were sung and the story was told of the Savior's birth all those years ago:


It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old...

"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn."

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night..."

"And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and babe lying in a manger."

Silent night, holy night; All is calm, all is bright...

 {Fun fact -- Jane is REALLY into sign language these days...

 ...here she is signing "Silent Night" during our program.}

"...behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?  For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."

"And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrhh."

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!  Let earth receive her King...

And...scene!  Isaac was a cranky mess by the end of the evening, so after the last song was sung, it was time to get everyone's jammies on and head him up to bed!  Before putting him down, though, I had to snap a picture of my cute little matching elfies while the oldest elf was still willing to pose with the others.  ;) 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Christmas Eve 2016

Christmas Eve dawned extra early -- the middle of the night to be precise -- with Alex coming in our room and crying that his ear hurt.  Thankfully, he went back to sleep after I gave him some medicine, but the ear ache was the tipping point to me hauling all of the boys to the doctor's office first thing that morning to have them checked out.   The results?  Ear infection for Alex, possible sinus infection for Ethan, and nothing but fever and a cough for Isaac.  After heading home with a couple of prescriptions for Amoxicillin, we got on with our regularly scheduled Christmas Eve programming!

{Jane was tickled pink to see that this tree outside our garage had been "garlanded." }

 This game is really fun -- the only downfall is that it has caused a major ruckus between Ethan and the little kids, who Ethan has forbidden from playing it because it's for ages 8 and up and he's pretty intense about following guidelines.  Hahaha.

{The Scrambled States of America game, however, is perfect for Jane and company.}

Even though we decorated our gingerbread house cookies last week, the kids were still pretty insistent on decorating our traditional, 3D, store-bought version for Christmas Eve as well.  Round 1 didn't go so well -- the icing bag burst and one of the keys pieces fell off the table and broke into too many pieces to try and glue back together -- so I agreed to check Walgreens for any extra kits when I went to pick up everyone's medicine.  As luck would have it, there were still a few boxes left, and I came home with a "mini village" for the kids to decorate.  The kids, however, were over it at that point and had moved on to watching Home Alone 2.  Except for Sophie.  She was ALL about decorating the mini village and knocked it out of the park all on her own.

 (Grace was more interested in stacking these bottles than doing any gingerbreading.)

Before things started to fall apart.

 Mini Village!

We finished the evening early with our annual Christmas gumbo, the last of our family gifts, new ornaments for the year, and our Christmas pageant program before sending the kids on up to bed EXTRA early, so that Santa had a chance to finish up some projects before delivering their presents.  ;)

 Ornament time!

 An elf on the shelf for our little elf on the shelf.  Hahaha.

 What what??  Alex was SUPER stoked about his Mario ornament.

Lippy Lip! 

An angel of music for my little angel of music.   :)

 Custom created "Apple Jack" My Little Pony ornament for our resident MLP superfan.

 Snoopy covered in Christmas lights for my Lights Boy.

Stay tuned for more Christmas celebrations!