Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve! As is the case most years, it was a busy day. Last-minute shopping, wrapping, and (of course) cooking.

Lily has become quite the little chef with Grandmom. She really liked helping put the Nila wafers in the bottom of the tiny cheesecakes.

Yes!

Love these sweet moments.

That evening, we all gathered at Grandma and Grandpa's house for our annual Allred Christmas Program. We usually use a cute stuffed Nativity set to help tell the story of Baby Jesus, but this year, we had the grandkids dress up.

Lily was really excited to be Mary!

Joseph!

Cole was one of the shepherds and even brought his own "sheep".

(The sheep may or may not have been dressed up as Santa's reindeer.)

Getting in character...

The kids did a good job! Mason and Grant were Wise Men.

Our attempts at a group picture:

Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus

Such a good dad. Way to step up, Joseph!

CHAD AND DARNELL CAME! They flew in right before our program! It was so good to have them there.

After our program, George read the kids "The Night Before Christmas" and all the kids were allowed to open one gift.

Aunt Amy always gets the greatest gifts. These kids had so much fun playing this little fishing game from her.

Uncle Jason taking a turn.

Another cool game from Aunt Amy.

And in other news: AMY IS ENGAGED!!

Derek proposed on Christmas Eve! We are so, so happy for them both. We've known Derek for years and think he's great!


And finally, look at this cute Grandma in Idaho with all her grandbabies!

I *might* have stolen this picture of Aunt Dorene from Facebook. She had Ben's two boys and daughter, Caleb's daughter, Nathan's daughter and two boys, and Kasia's three boys. That's quite the family!

Christmas lights with the Glass family

December 22nd, the kids and I loaded up and headed to Northern Virginia. George had to work but was heading up later that evening. 

We made it to Ashburn just in time to get back in the car and drive to Pennsylvania to see some really amazing Christmas lights with the Glass family. (We got caught in traffic so what should have been a 1.5 hour drive turned into over 4 hours.)

Even with the traffic, once we got there and started walking around, it was worth it!

The whole place was covered in beautiful lights--my pictures don't come close to doing it justice.

Callie and Bryce came too! Lance and Jude were really happy to see their cousins!

They had a great train track with a running train that Cole could have watched for hours.

Dinner with Grandmom is the best--the kids always end up with extra special treats.

My favorite part were the indoor gardens. They had exotic trees and plants from all over the world, and each room was a different theme.

Lexi was a good sport!

They had a collection of bonsai trees and I thought this one was crazy. It's a pomegranate tree WITH A POMEGRANATE!  

It was a fun time! Thankfully, the ride home was much shorter and we made it back to Grandmom and Pop Pop's house just in time for kiddos to get to bed.

Christmas play group, snuggles, and old friends

Christmas is getting closer and I'm feeling farther and farther behind! Thankfully this year I'm not sewing four huge quilts (I don't know how I pulled that off three years ago, seeing as it took me about 200 hours of work), but we still manage to fill every last second of the day.

Lily needs to be in gymnastics. This girl is agile and quick and happy to climb up anything, be it trees, bunkbeds, or pantry shelves.

I wanted to have a Christmas party but couldn't find a night that worked well, so Sara Knight and I hosted a playgroup the week before Christmas when all the kids were out of school. It turned out really really fun!

Sara and I constructed mini gingerbread houses for each of the kids to decorate.

I made sugar cookies and icing so everyone could decorate cookies as well.

We had a table full of adult coloring pages where the "big kids" congregated to color and talk.

Cole spent a long time making sure his house was just right.

That looks awesome, son!

Lily liked eating the candy instead of decorating. (Why can my children never keep their clothes on?)

I brought all my scooters (although all the kids thought this large one was the best) and our bounce house.

People stayed for four hours, just playing and talking. It was perfect.

Jude working hard on his house:

My good friend Terumi taking a turn holding Lexi.

George and I started a different program in November that's part of the 5:3:1 called "Boring but Big". I've really enjoyed it and have seen some improvement in both my lifts and my physique. I know I'm crooked here, but I had George take my picture anyway so one day I can look back and remember when I used to be in shape.

Cole is my snuggle bug. He comes in almost every morning to give us some love before we start the day. I love being with my sweet, loving Cole. 

It seems I'm not the only one who likes to snuggle in bed. Our bed often turns into the gathering place for the family. Love these two sharing a sweet moment together.

We were so excited to learn that our friends the Sanchez family were visiting from California! We knew the Sanchezes when we first moved to Charlottesville. Lance did preschool with Ethan, their oldest son. It was so nice to see them again after almost seven years!