Merry Christmas!

 We hope all of you had a Merry Christmas!  We certainly have and are continuing to do so.

On Tuesday of last week, Evie's friend Allyson came to spend the night and that went exceedingly well.  They have been friends since first grade, and I am realizing that Evie doesn't have enough opportunities to interact with school friends outside of school, so Allyson's mom dropped her off on Tuesday afternoon and she stayed until Wednesday morning.  The girls enjoyed playing on the trampoline and swing outside, and cutting out Christmas cookies.  I took them to Huey's for dinner.  They slept on a pallet in the living room and seemed to get an adequate amount of sleep to enjoy breakfast and then cookie decorating the next morning.

Cutting out Christmas cookies

Plotting what to draw on the wall at Huey's

Decorating the cookies the next morning

Ryan, Addie, and Will made it in to town the day after we had a snow storm, so Evie and I went to get them from the airport while driving as carefully as possible.  It was quite a reunion for the cousins since Ryan and family moved to England in May, so there were lots of stories and plenty of laughter.  We've enjoyed getting caught up on each other's news and playing games, and of course, doing the Christmas traditions of decorating the tree, listening to King's College's Christmas Eve service, attending our own Christmas Eve service, having our "Christmas Eve feast" as I coined the term when I was about Evie's age, and opening presents together.

Decorating the tree at Granna and Grannadady's. The kids are still in their pjs.  Evie spent the night a few times.

The kids sang with some other Grace Presbyterian children during the Christmas Eve service

Evie and Will were acolytes

The kids did the reading for the Advent wreath

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

Opening stockings on Christmas morning

In church for worship on Christmas morning since it was on a Sunday this year

Opening stockings at Granna and Grannadaddy's house

I didn't get pictures from Granna's family gathering Christmas night, nor from our gathering at Kathy's house this afternoon.  One of my New Year's resolutions is do resume regular picture taking!