Christmas Eve

We stayed at the cabin until Christmas Eve this year.  I never would have thought it, but we did end up having a Christopher's two sisters come up with their families, without a hitch!  So, here are some more pictures of us playing in the snow.

I love this pair of pictures.  This is the shot I wanted to get:

And then this is what happened next:

As Kaitlyn reminds me often, "snow is slippery."

They loved hanging out with their cousins.  And Kaitlyn loved making snow angels all day, despite the fact that her puny weight had no impact on the frozen snow.

So beautiful!  You know, when you don't have to deal with traveling in it too much.  Thankfully our neighbors were making trips up and down all day, and so the road was well packed down.  They just bought a cabin near us, and he owns 4 snowmobiles.  So we watched all day as they got everything up for their family party that night - presents and instruments and not one, but two Christmas trees! 

Well, as for us, once we finally got down, we headed to the annual party at Grandma's house.  This year, my sister-in-law Betsy came well equipped.  She had made about 20 costumes for all the little kids to wear in a nativity scene!  I was amazed when the little bags, each labeled with a part, kept coming and coming out of her box.  They were all simple - but that made it easier for them to fit on any size child that picked it out that year. 

So after everyone got a part, then all the kids got to act each scene out . . .

. . . while my brother-in-law read the story.  Perfect!

Everybody especially liked when Mary had to ride on the donkey.

After the nativity scene, it was time for the annual concert.  My husband and all of his siblings played horns quite seriously growing up, so usually a couple of them end up playing some songs for everybody.  It gets funnier each year as we get further away from high school, when most of them stopped playing.

But it is still a hit!

And then Santa comes!  Amazingly, Tyler was the one that ran up and got really excited to see him. 

"Tyler, are you excited for Christmas?"
"Yeah."
"Have you been a good boy?"
"Yeah."
"Tyler, do you ever push your sister?"
"Yeah."
Yup, totally true.

Kaitlyn was pretty excited too.  Especially when he gave her candy.



What a busy day!