Our Annual Christmas Eve Party (with so many pictures)!

 Last Sunday, Dallin was helping pass the sacrament in his ward.  As he passed the row of a young child, the little boy turned to his dad and said, "That's Jesus!"  When Caitlyn told me this story, I said, "Dallin, maybe it's time to cut your hair."  Dallin answered, "Why, I'm trying to be like Jesus."

We all should be trying to be more like our Savior, at Christmas and always.  

Gunnar and Ollie both did a fantastic job in their piano recital this past week.  They are both getting a lot more proficient and it's a pleasure to go to their recitals.  

Gunnar and Ollie also played duets.  One with each other, and one with another student.

Kelly the Realtor (Roy's cousin) invited many people to see Wonka right before Christmas.  She said she had lots of extra seats, so we invited the whole family.  We ran into Kelly's mom (Roy's 1st cousin) and her husband Reed and had them get into the picture with us.  That's Willie Wonka in the center.

Jordan and Foster celebrated birthday's this week.  Foster had her party last week, but her actual birthday is the 21st.  One day after her dad's.  

The Vances came down earlier in the week to start our Christmas festivities with a Santa Party hosted by the Greens.  Ruby told me she was so excited for the play.  I thought she was talking about the play Elf, because we had given Matt and Crista tickets to take Ruby and Greta to see it.  But, as she continued, I realized she was excited to reenact the Nativity.  She was concerned who would play Jesus; she was a little worried that maybe Zack shouldn't do it. I guess she's protective of him.

The Santa Party was a lot of fun, and most importantly, it was very Christ centered.  Santa and Mrs. Claus talked about the most important things about Christmas and we all sang silent night.  It was very generous of Adrienne and AJ to have us all to her home for such a fun beginning to our Christmas festivities.

These two pictures are at my house.  Todd and Foster were playing...Not really, Todd is guarding his cars so his cousin won't get them.

Matt with Zack.  Zack is such a sweet baby, we all love him so much; 

 Matt, Zack, Crista, Ruby and Bridget

Grandma played "The Fairy Game" with Ruby, Greta and Bridget.
  It was a great game because everyone either wins or loses together.
  It takes away some of the stress of competition.

Saturday, Dan and Jieun came over and made lunch for most of the family.  He made some delicious tacos with homemade tortillas as well as a Mexican soup.  It was spicy, but delicious.  

The kids took over the big table for the Saturday lunch.  

We all went to church to our respective wards on Sunday morning.  I appreciated the songs and the talk that centered on our Savior.  Ori came to our ward because she and Yuna had spent the night at our home.  We got home from church and Roy went straight to bed.  He had felt fine when we left with just a slight headache, but by 11:00 am, he had completely crashed.  Since Roy's always so good to me, he is the one who usually cooks our Christmas Eve dinner.  This time, for the first time in many years (or ever), I took over and cooked the prime rib and crab.  Everyone helps by bringing delicious food to accompany and they also helped a lot in the kitchen while the preparations were being made.  Many hands do make the work a lot lighter.  Jennie also had to miss our festivities because she was in bed with a stomach bug.  

Saturday night we had all of the Vance family, + Yuna and Ori.  
Ori had all the girls in the bathroom trying out her face wash 
and lotion.  She was teaching them how to carefully pat
their face dry after washing it.  

After dinner we had our traditional Nativity play with Ruby and Finn as Mary and Joseph.  The kids all sang Silent Night to conclude the play.  I went in to check on Roy and he was crying.  He said it wasn't because he was missing out, but because he felt the spirit so strongly when the kids sang that song.  

Sara videoed another song to send to grandpa in his bedroom, but it wasn't quite so tender.

Other pictures from Christmas Eve:

All the little girls got matching pajamas.  My two older granddaughters got clothes (Doyeon
is wearing her pants, but Hyeji's still waiting for hers to arrive in the mail.

The boys got shirts, but they're not wearing them in this picture.

We abandoned the adult white elephant exchange, but allowed the older grandchildren (8 and older) to have their own game.  It worked well, for the most part.  The first rule was no tears, and we almost made it!  The younger kids exchanged gifts.

As you can see, the kids look pretty happy and excited.

Foster was pretty happy to be at the party with all her cousins.

Dinner

Todd LOVES Finn and his other male cousins.  Finn told him at the end of the night, "Todd, I'm leaving."  Todd said, "I love you!  Merry Christmas."  It made Finn's night.

I know there are a lot of pictures, but I have a big family and they are all so cute!  Here are a few more on Christmas Day.  Everyone spent Christmas Day in their own homes (and maybe with the in-laws).  They shared some pictures of the kids enjoying their gifts.  Dad and I had a quiet day at home and spent most of the day in bed recovering.  We didn't even open our gifts to each other until after noon.

The power wheels was a gift for all four of Crista's kids.  You can see they are pretty excited.

Three princesses: Effie, Avie and Yuli

I didn't get lots of pictures from the Jackson's, but above is Mav?  and Harvey.  Elise said they gave almost all their kids gifts that needed parental help, so it wasn't a very restful day for them.

Caitlyn got her first gun.  It looks a little incongruent in her hands.  Dallin also made her an awesome 3-D cutout of a Harry Potter scene (she's a huge fan of Harry Potter).  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!