Merry Christmas!

Jesus is Born, Alleluia!
We began our Christmas celebration with Mass on Christmas Eve. We usually prefer to go to mass first thing Christmas morning, but our parish moved the morning mass to a later time, so we changed the plan. We even let each of the children choose one gift to open after Mass Christmas Eve. They were SO well behaved!

Anastasia wanted this Ty Cheetah so badly. She has been asking for it for months "for her birthday" and was thrilled to get it a week earlier instead!

It was nice to enjoy a relaxed morning of Christmas music (the GOOD stuff from the Cathedral Choir), finishing our Jesse tree, and opening a few family gifts.

She did such a beautiful job focusing on Jesus this advent. She was so excited to see baby Jesus in our Nativities. It was sweet to see her pondering (you can't see it, but her Cheetah is pondering with her!).

 The kids all did such a great job buying gifts for each other. There was much excitement and thanks!

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 A family gift...the stomp rocket. It proved to be great family fun. In honor of Uncle Matt, we even took some slow-mo videos just for fun!

Then later in the morning, we headed to Pawpaw and Manah's house.

 Wow!

 Gymnastics mat that apparently doubles as a trampoline!

 He has been wanting his own Ripstick because he really wants to learn, but his sisters are not always willing to share!

We relaxed and enjoyed a bit at home before opening the gifts Lito and Lita brought at Thanksgiving. The oldest 3 girls received AG gift cards and were thrilled.

 He loved this little car!

 We certainly have much to be thankful for, most importantly our Faith but also such generous, loving family and friends to surround us! We were sad to learn that Lita is sick and cannot join us for Christmas as planned. We were able to face time her, though, and will be keeping her in our prayers! May God bless everyone this Christmas!