Christmas Eve 2016

We had a smaller gathering for Christmas Eve this year-- just our family and my sister's family, but it was absolutely lovely.
The little kid's table-- where not much actual food was consumed, but they were adorable anyway.

The grown-up table-- where too much food was consumed and we are close, but not as adorable as the little kid table.
I do not have a black eye, rather I opened my Christmas cracker to find a pirate eye patch!  I was thrilled to receive the best prize of them all.  "I win!"

I am smitten by the little boys as of late.  Particularly little boys with combed hair and clean shirts and faces.

Peter is smitten (more like drunk) on Cranberry Splash soda.

The Nativity story and play were... the most entertaining I've ever seen.  Maybe it was because Grandma and Grandpa Cannon weren't with us to bring some measure of decorum to our gathering.   They are up in Washington helping with my brother's kids.  We missed them, but are grateful they are where they are, doing what they're doing.

Nevertheless, without them there, we had some... shall we say... more creative interpretations of the holy story.
George played the part of Joseph quite respectably, but here he is doubling as a scared shepherd.  Not bad-- I can clearly sense his fear.

The angels.  Maiya (on the left) was one of the shepherds, along with Peter.  They were very acrobatic shepherds and there was even some breakdancing.

Emi and George as Mary and Joseph and Peter as the baby Jesus.  Umm... it really was Greta's year to be baby Jesus, but she was nursing.  So Peter jumped right in and was so happy to get to sit in Greta's bouncy chair.  Peter wasn't really "Jesus material" when he was a baby (he cried too much), so I suppose it was nice for him to finally get his moment.  Actually, it was quite adorable and I love this picture.

Should I share that Bethany and Elinor were jockeying for position around the manger?  Yes, I told them to knock it off just before this touching moment.  I do love that they were all crowding around the baby Jesus.  Oh, that we were all so anxious to get closer to our Savior.
Even with all the silliness, it was all very sweet and I thoroughly enjoyed the "pageant".

And then it was pajammy time!!!
Ah, yes, you can see that Peter did not care to have his photograph taken.  He was taken to bed mere moments after this was forced upon him.

It was the year of Fox pajamas.  You can't see it very well, but there are sleeping foxes all over our pants.  As we posed for this picture I thought about how thankful I am to have these girls-- soon to be women-- in my life and for eternity.  In many ways they are and will continue to be my best friends.

One more with baby Greta joining us.  

So handsome.  You'd be hard pressed to find a father/son duo that appreciate Christmas more than these two.

Eh, kind of blurry, but you get the idea.  We went for matching pajamas, but we could only match in segments, not the whole family.

In years past I have mentioned this ridiculous "Cajun Night Before Christmas" book that Abe reads to us.  It's just silly, but it's written in such a way to be read with a very thick accent.  No offense to Abe, but he just got replaced as the reader.  Bethany read it aloud and she just nailed the accent.

Poor Abe-- his children are stealing all his Christmas traditions and doing them better!.  He used to be the reader of this book, now Bethany is.  He used to be the Santa hat wearer, now Clark is.  I guess that is the goal-- for our kids to be better than us.  We're succeeding!

It cut off before the end, but here's most of Bethany reading.