Christmas Cheer

We are busy basking in the afterglow of another wonderful Christmas! As the kids get older, they gain more of an understanding of the magic of Jesus' birth. We truly enjoyed our daily rituals of placing another part of the Nativity up on our Advent calendar and praying over our Advent wreath.

Christmas Eve mass was extra special this year. Ava sang in the choir and we lit one of the candles on the Advent wreath as a family.

Then we had everyone over for Christmas Eve dinner and festivities.

Papa read The Night Before Christmas. The kids proved to be a bit restless this year!

Then it was time to set out milk and cookies for Santa!

Christmas morning didn't disappoint. Ava was the first one up, even before us. We were impressed with her self-control! She went downstairs, saw Santa had come, and went back to her bed to wait patiently for the rest of the house to wake up. Once we all were up, we headed downstairs to open gifts. Santa was certainly good to us, but this year's big surprise was finally getting to tell the kids we are taking them to Disney World this March! (Notice Bennett had to kiss each of his gifts.)

Later in the day we headed to Mimi and Papa's to continue our celebration.

Every year we feel so blessed to celebrate Christmas with our beloved family and friends. We have so much to be grateful for, but most of all that God sent us His Son Jesus.

Happy Birthday Baran!

We were so happy to celebrate our cousin Baran's birthday party in Columbus this year. We certainly celebrated in style! First we had a get together at his place.

Then we headed to Recreations Outlet for a party with friends and family.

Our gift to Baran was a trip to Build a Bear. Ava and Lily helped him pick out a cute little bunny with a Cars outfit and Skecher shoes.

Happy birthday little buddy!