A Beautiful Christmas

 We have had such a wonderful Christmas time!  I picked Evie up on Monday from camp and she had had a blast and the first thing she said to me was how much she wanted to come back for summer camp.  So that made me really happy.  I have considered the past summers whether she was ready (and she probably was, but I wasn't), so I have a feeling she'll be gone to camp one week this summer.  I am grateful for a place that's only an hour away, that incorporates spiritual growth and Christian learning as a part of their camp experience, and I'm grateful that they had this little mini camp so I feel more confident that Evie will enjoy it.

Monday night, when we got home, we began our annual reading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, with Evie reading a good portion of it to me.

Wednesday, we headed to my cousins house to finally get to have some time with family!  It was our first "normal" event with my cousin Daniel, his wife Ginny, and their 4 girls, two of whom are older than Evie and two are younger.  Addie and Will also were there because they and Ryan and Aimee arrived late in the evening Tuesday, so we had a big reunion.  The kids all played outside most of the time, enjoying my cousin's huge backyard with a fort, playhouse, ninja course, and lots of trees and land to explore.  Us grownups played a lot of table top games and enjoyed visiting with each other.

The kids taking a brief sitting break outside.

Wednesday evening, we went to a Christmas themed escape room.  Evie has been asking for months to do an escape room with her cousins and she enjoyed it so much.

Thursday and Friday, we spent the day at Granna and Granndaddy's house, playing games, chatting, and eating.

Will, Evie, and Addie practicing their parts for the lighting of the Christ candle on Christmas Eve.  You can watch them do their reading at this link, minute 12:20

We decorated the Christmas tree

The new game that was a big hit was So Clover, which is a game of word associations.  We played several rounds of this, and Evie enjoyed participating especially as a "consultant" where she would help those of us who were having trouble coming up with our answers.

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year, in large part because of sitting with family at the candlelight service.

We tried getting a family picture, and for some reason, Seth and I are giants.

Christmas Day, we opened stockings and presents at home and then we headed to Granna and Grannadaddy's house for more presents and lunch with the family.

My 40th Christmas with this stocking

We learned on Christmas that one of my cousins had COVID and so our plans to go to my uncle's house for Christmas weren't going to work out, so for my mom's side, we met outside (without that cousin's family present, obviously).

This morning, we had church service and then Evie came home to grab a nap (since she'd been staying up pretty late with her cousins every night), and then we headed back to Granna and Grannadaddy's for our last day with Addie and Will.  They leave tomorrow, but I am impressed with how well Evie handled that information.

Evie and another acolyte from church, putting out the candles on the Advent wreath.