Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a great hit again, and I felt like I wasn't quite as stressed about it as usual. We had Marshall's parents, William, Candi and her 2 boys, Eric and his 5 kids, and my sister Jessica and her husband and their 4 boys. I made most of the traditional treats, except for the chicken kabobs (found out too late that I was out of chicken), divinity, and shortbread cookies. Please excuse the poor quality pictures--I was pretty busy!
The treat table. The first 2 layers of the jello salad set in the mold perfectly, but the third (raspberry layer) ruined it all. But luckily I had a back-up in a pan. Then at the last minute I ruined the aesthetics by just hurriedly squirting whipped cream on it. It tasted great though!

The spread. 

The kids all found something they loved to eat. 

The nativity was especially cute this year. The kids were all really into it. Here is McKay being a shepherd. 

Mason was a wise man.

Max insisted he wanted to be the angel, and he was nice to share the responsibility with his little cousin Rachel. 

My little shepherd. 

The kids were cute. 

We didn't have any babies small enough to be baby Jesus, and so we used the Jesus from the Little People Nativity. The kids were so sweet kneeling around it. 

We concluded the evening with a nice little program where the kids sang, Logan played the violin, and we sang carols. I'm so blessed to have such loving family so close by. We missed my parents (my mom is recovering from hip surgery) but the sadness from missing them was off-set by the relief that my mom finally got her surgery and was already feeling better than she has for months.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We're Coming Home!!!

Image
I'm not posting "before" pictures because they are a little too scary, but this is a pretty good "after" picture if you ask me! Mason had another amazing night. Yesterday he wouldn't stand on his own (we think because of all the bruising, pulled groin muscle, swollen foot) but he slept really well all night (and kept his oxygen levels up without help) and this morning he woke up with a lot more energy. He ate 3 little boxes of fruit loops, 2 containers of milk, and is working on a muffin now. He's gone potty by himself, and walked back and forth to the playroom down the hall two or three times. He seems completely back and in the playroom used potato heads to re-enact a scene from Toy Story 2. The pediatrician just came in and told us that he feels good about going home as long as we follow-up with our pediatrician by Wednesday morning at the latest to get the stitches out, re-write prescriptions (can't fill Canadian ones in US), and decide where ...
Read more

Quick Update

First of all, thanks for all the prayers we know are received. I'm going to make this update quick and dirty since I have a hard time thinking about it and I want to get back to Mason. I also don't know if every detail is completely accurate but this is the way I understand it. Yesterday afternoon my dad and Marshall took the two boys hiking at Boundary Bay in Waterton . It is a short flat trail that you access through a boat ride and goes for a mile or so and crosses over a creek. They were hiking along and when they got close to the creek the boys stopped and Mason held my dad's hand while Myles held Marshall's. My dad and Mason were in front and to get onto the bridge (just two cut logs with a hand rail on one side) you have to step on a rock. Mason and my dad both stepped on the rock and Mason was so excited to see the water that he jumped up onto the bridge. He slipped, causing my dad to loose his balance and Mason spun around causing my dad to loose the grip on hi...
Read more

Miraculous Update July 4th 6 AM

We had an amazing night. Yesterday the doctors said they would take out the tube in the morning unless he was clearly awake and tried pulling it out (because they wanted to go home--understandably). We had two wonderful nurses who have been working with him who really believed he was ready and would be happier with it out and so they irritated him to wake him by taking out his cathetar, brushing his teeth, suctioning him over and over until he really was awake and fighting them. The doctor finally said they could take it out and after grabbing a team of about 10 and a crash cart just in case they took it out. He threw up a lot, coughed a bit, whined a little, and then fell back to sleep (perfect because all he has in him is tylenol and is probably in pain). He woke up 3 or 4 times during the night absolutely frantic kicking and crying and each time he would eventually say softly "potty, need to get out". He was wearing a diaper and we would all just have to encourage him tha...
Read more