Joyfull!

*I forgot to post these pictures with my post about the Sunday Christmas program...so I decided to add them on here. Love these faces!*

What a wonderful holiday! Christmas Eve was pretty chill - a few last-minute trips to the store, but nothing frenzied. Here are a few highlights:

Kelly put together this sweet ensemble of an outfit

Max made a "face collection" and a "silver collection" with all of the utensils in the drawer...

then he became the Statue of the Collections, of course. "Mom, now I'm going to be the Statue of the Collections." Note the pepper shaker "torch".

Ty prepared a beautiful, delicious, mouth-watering meal. We had steak, king crab legs, salmon, mashed potatoes, asparagus and bread. We were joined by our neighbors, the Lintons, and Russ & Karli Kent who were going to fly out Christmas morning to meet the rest of their family in Arizona. Candles were lit, sparkling cider was the beverage of choice, and the company was superb. We ate until we were stuffed. And I mean stuffed. The best part about it was that I did nothing for the meal - Tyler did it all, including some serious cleaning. What a man!

We asked Russ if their family had any traditions he wanted to carry out with us that night. He brought a Christmas-themed story to read to the kids with some pretty hilarious voices and then gave each of them a small Christmas tree, with tiny ornaments to decorate (it went with the story). The kids loved it!

Then we ALL got dressed up and had a pretty sweet nativity.

Kelly kept telling everyone, "I a angel." She spread her arms out a lot...mostly because of the shape of the costume, but it totally worked for the angel proclaiming the birth of the Savior.

We topped the night off with delicious dessert and some good chatting.

Soon after our guests left, Mrs. Clause and her elves doorbell-ditched our Christmas pajamas.

Christmas Day was perfect. Stockings were opened on our bed; kids came down to see their haul from Mr. Clause; german pancakes were consumed; presents from under the tree were opened; grandparents were talked to; kids got dressed in Christmas outfits, but the parents never bothered getting out of pj's ALL DAY; toys were very well loved and nicely played with; "Up" was watched and enjoyed by all; happiness and contentment were the prevailing themes/feelings of the day. Aaaahhhh...

I feel like my greatest Christmas present is that Tyler gets the week off between Christmas and New Years...he's all ours until January 4th! Life is so, so good.