Christmas time. A time of fun and excitement. A time of making memories with family and friends. Traditions. Christmas Eve services. Little squeals of excitement.
There is so much build up to this time of year. Of course, it's all I can do to keep the kids out of the Christmas presents! However, I hope that they come away each year knowing the true meaning of the Christmas celebration. The REASON for the SEASON. The birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This year, we ran out of time to bake a cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus at our own house. But Mimi came to the rescue by providing all of that at our family celebration.
This year, we started off our Christmas Eve by allowing the kids to open 1 gift. Kendall opened up her teal converse shoes and Sam got a PJ Mask matching game. Kathryn missed all the fun because she was napping!
Later in the afternoon, we got showered and dressed and attended the Christmas Eve service at the church. We met Uncle Mark and crew there. It's always a special time of reflection on the birth of our Savior. We lit candles and sang Silent Night, which always brings me to tears. I'm so thankful for a wonderful church that provides opportunities to worship and refocus our thinking on the true meaning of Christmas. Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take some great pictures with our family!
After the service, we had "framily" dinner (dinner with our friends who are our family here) at the Beavers house with the Brands. We had so much fun!! Mr Ben read the Christmas story to the kids. We then gathered together and ate dinner and dessert. After that, the kids decorated Christmas tree cinnamon rolls and Christmas cookies for Santa. We love our special friends and were so excited to make fun memories with them!
We ended the night with the sprinkling of Reindeer food in the driveway! We always make sure that we do that, so that Santa can find our house!
It's never a complete Christmas Eve without pictures in front of the Christmas tree. I'm so very thankful for these 3 special babies. The Lord has blessed us so richly, and I am so grateful for our lives!
Oh my goodness. Santa came to our house!!!!
Kendall was proud of her Garmin Vivofit exercise band!
Kathryn got a new BMW!
Oh Sam...he was so excited about his new tennis shoes! Bless his heart. He never gets new shoes. He always wears hand-me-downs from family and friends, so he was super stoked about his shoes!
Kendall got a science experiment kit. I hope she doesn't blow up the house!
Luckily, the weather was so warm on Christmas morning, so we were able to get the new toys out and play for a little while!
On Christmas afternoon, we went to Clarksdale to spend time with the family. We went to Aunt Karen's house and ate dinner and opened presents. The kids had a blast playing outside in the warm weather! They picked up pecans, rode the toys, and played ball. We were also so excited the Uncle Charlie was there to spend Christmas with us! We had a great time and loved every second of our "Crazy Christmas"!
The Stovall crew (minus Andrew)
This is the best picture we could get of our bunch!
Mimi and Uncle Charlie
Me and Jon Mark
Kathryn had so much fun picking pecans!!
She was covered in dirt by the end of the day!
Aunt Jessie and her Mini-me!
Uncle Mark with Sydni and Maddi
This picture is exactly who he is...full of POOP!
Kendall made Mimi a pottery "Family" and she painted it all on her own!
This girl...she was crying over her necklace!
Sam got a dinosaur building kit!
Luckily, Mimi got a birthday cake so we got to sing Happy birthday to Jesus before digging in to the delicious Chow cake!
3 Crazy Cousins!
Here are all the grandkids minus Lindsey, Kathryn, and Annalyce
Uncle Charlie and Me!
