Christmas Eve

My favorite day/holiday has always been Christmas Eve at my mom's house. Since I was a little kid, Christmas Eve we have always had a birthday party for Jesus. And all kinds of people usually file through my mom's house. Families of kids that she has been a nurse for, aunts/uncles/cousins, friends etc etc. It is just such a wonderful tradition for me. Since we have gotten married this tradition has become a little bit harder, in trying to be fair to Matt some years we don't get to have Christmas Eve at my parents. And we go to his grandmothers instead. But this year was the day to have it at my parents. It was smaller this year than in the past, since half of my siblings have moved away. But it was still wonderful. And listen to this beautiful story... About twelve or so years ago my parents took 17month old twins for an emergency foster care placement for the weekend (YEAH RIGHT!). Well that emergency placement led to my parents having Seth and Sydney for the next year and a half almost. We loved these two so so much and were devestated when they were put up for adoption and my parents didnt feel led by God to keep them. But praise God a couple in our church adopted them so we have always stayed involved. They were even the flower girl and ring bearer in Matt and my wedding....

We have continued to stay close to Seth and Sydney and their adoptive family through the years. Recently Sydney has expressed some interest in knowing her birth family. So thanks to good old facebook we were able to find their older sibling. And that led to them getting together! It has been wonderful to see the four kids developing a relationship over the past couple of months. Well we had all four siblings over on Christmas Eve! Courtney and Tyler are just the sweetest most polite teenagers I have ever met. What an amazing story of God's restoration to this family :-)

My aunt Irene and Uncle Bud also celebrated Jesus' birthday with us along with their children. My sister Deanna and her husband TJ, and Darius were there as well.

I love the tradition that my parents started in singing happy birthday to Jesus. I love that it is such a visual part of our Christmas celebration. The birthday cake I made for Jesus. ..

After dinner we all go to church for our Christmas Eve service. This year a woman in our church had just given birth three days prior so we had a newborn baby as Jesus this year. It was beautiful. His parents were Mary and Joseph and his siblings were an angel and a sheperd. And our Pastor had on a cowboy hat...

And then a few pictures of the kiddos at church with family...