Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

I was so excited to get this picture that someone sent to me from Kami's mission on Christmas Eve!

I always enjoy having Christmas or Christmas Eve on a Sunday. I love how it keeps the focus right where it ought to be; on our Savior.  We only had Sacrament meeting, and we had been wondering as a family, how we could fill the gap of not getting to take part in our annual Christmas Eve tradition of going caroling on a trailer all over Sugar City with all of the extended Gee family.

We ended up inviting 4 or 5 families to come to our house from 6:30-8:00.  I told everyone to bring a treat to share and we visited and all the kids that came did the nativity while Shawn read Luke 2.  It ended up being a great evening and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Nolan, Isabelle and Anjoleena, with Emma Ware entering as a sheep:

Aubrey Marshall as an angel, Burt boys as sheep and wise men.  I didn't have a very good angle on this whole thing:

 

After the guests left, the kids all bedded down in Caden's room to have a "sleepover" for the night:

And while they were all sleeping, Santa Came!:

Christmas morning, we all participated in our tradition of everyone making a part of a really great breakfast.  Muffins, sausage, eggs, bacon, orange juice... everyone is given a job, we have an amazing breakfast and then we open gifts.  We all really love this tradition!

At about 11:00 we got to talk to Kami!!

She and I are the "watering pots" of the family, and we take our calling seriously, so we did a lot of crying.  But it was so-happy-to-see-you crying. We all love her and miss her so much.  I have really been missing her lately because she is one of my best friends!  But I am so happy for the experiences she is having and the growth she is experiencing, and grateful for the example she is to all of us.





We did some more sledding in the afternoon:
Caden, Maddie, Isabelle, Nolan:

Shawn and Pace:

Christmas was perfect.