Christmas Celebration #3

Finally, the kids are out of school, and it's time for the next Christmas celebration. The girls started out the day by creating their own nativity. I think that Samantha was Mary and Peter was clearly baby Jesus and Duffy must have been Joseph.Then Amelia was either playing the part of a shepherd, or wiseman or angel. I'm not really sure. I couldn't believe how willingly Peter played his part. They rolled him up in a blanket and he just stayed there very calmly. Even after they were done, and set him down on the floor, he just stayed in the blanket. It was pretty funny. (They had secured him pretty tightly, but still, he didn't even try to escape. I think all this Christmas celebrating has worn him out!)
For 2 or 3 days the girls had been asking if we could decorate the gingerbread house. I just didn't see how we were going to have time because I still had some errands to run, so I finally let go of some of my OCD and told them they could decorate it while Shawn and I were gone. (Seriously, that took some effort. Not only did I give up control of decorating it just the way I wanted it, but I also left them knowing I would come home to a big mess.)

As we left, it looked like things were somewhat under control. (I had asked Jonas to take some photos for me, but apparently once we were gone, he no longer felt obligated, so I didn't get to see how it looked before things went wrong.)
Apparently, they got it all together and in the final decorating stages, it collapsed. Shawn tried to fix it, but there wasn't any frosting left so it had to be altered a bit. Oh well, maybe next year.
Then in the evening we were off to the Marsh Family Christmas celebration which is always on December 23rd. We had a nice dinner with everyone, opened presents and read the story of Christ's birth and sang carols. Then a little talk from my Dad which I always look forward to. It's quite a bit more chaotic than when we're together with Shawn's family just purely form a numbers standpoint, but I enjoy being with everyone.

Peter got to open his present first because he was the youngest in attendance. Which was great, until it was time for Clara to open hers and Peter thought it shouldn't be her turn yet. He was pretty angry - but he got over it.

He is in a huge train phase so this was a perfect gift for him.

Always fun to see all of the similarly aged cousins looking on to see what the gift is.

A photo of me opening my gift:
A headlamp and a pair of highly reflective arm warmers. (Just what I asked for for those cold, dark early morning runs.)
Peter spotted Charlie lying on the top of the stairs and went over to join him. I love watching the little cousins imitate the bigger ones.
A late night with lots of noise and chaos, presents, music and a good reminder of what Christmas is about. Next is Christmas Eve!