Christmas Eve

One of my very favorite Christmas traditions is going to our church's Christmas Eve Service.  Being in the Lord's house worshiping Him fills my heart with joy.  I love hearing scripture and singing Christmas hymns.  And then when they dim the lights and the sanctuary is filled with candlelight as we sing Silent Night...  It makes me teary every single time.  I am just overwhelmed by the fact that my Savior sent His Son to die for me!  I hope that my kids always remember these sacred times...

 Mrs. Nancy has been so sweet to Clayton since he was little bitty.  He thinks so highly of her!

 We came home from service, and the boys opened their Christmas jammies.  :)

 The big boys had bought family presents at their school spirit store.  I took Owen to the Dollar Tree so that he could do the same.  They were all soooooooo excited about the things they had chosen!  It was fun to watch their genuine happiness to give gifts!

 My sweet babies spoiled their Mama so!  I got so many wonderful things!

 My Drew had talked up his gift for weeks.  "Mama, you're going to LOVE my gift!  It was supposed to be $10, but I only had to pay $2!"  Haha!  He knows how much I love a good bargain.  When I opened it up, I could definitely see what all of the hype was about!  He got a lot of bling for his buck!  ;)

 Drew pooled his money for his brothers and got them a joint gift - an icee maker.

 There were lots of hugs and "thank you!"  It was so sweet!

 After our little Christmas Eve gift exchange, we did our annual PJs, Cocoa, and Christmas lights.  We went to the Starbucks in our Kroger, but we got there 5 minutes after they had closed.  Oops!  Luckily, they were kind enough to give us some cups and there was a microwave in the little food area.  So... we improvised and bought ready made hot chocolate from Kroger, put it in the Starbucks cups, and microwaved it.  Done.  :)

 The boys had fun looking for all of the things on our scavenger hunt.  It's always a fun time!

 We sprinkled reindeer food...

 Read the Night Before Christmas...

 And put out cookies, milk, and carrots for the reindeer.

Then it was off to bed, in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there....