Christmas 2014

A photo recap of Christmas 2014! We started the festivities in DC with our friends for a Who Feast. The kids went to play laser tag with the dads while Em C. and I talked the afternoon away with constant interjections from her youngest. I've never known a child like Grayson who is full of love and full to the brim with questions about everything and repeats you in the form of a question. It made me miss two year old little boys as that was always one of my favorite ages. I'll give them back at three, but two was fantastic! 

Em C. is one of the funnest moms I've ever met and came up with all sorts of creative ideas for our Grinch meal:

Who Viggees was the name Gavin came up with for our contribution to the meal! He was off the charts proud of himself because he came up with the name in about .2 seconds after I asked the boys what name they thought we should use for our veggie tray. He was cheering himself loudly (he's never quiet) in the van in a way that says to the others, "in your face!" We definitely have a competition problem in our house, always have, and I wonder if we always will. There were plenty of naysayers in the van too, but I loved it and I got the final say, so Who Viggees it was!

Thank you girls and Liam for knowing what to do in a photo! Boys.......boys.......boys.......

The evening ended with watching the Grinch and a long drive home where no one actually fell asleep. We met again a few days later in Staunton Virginia to see the play: A Christmas Carol which was the perfect way to prepare us for our Christmas Eve day service project. This year we served the homeless in Charlottesville. Those who need shelter and food move from church to church every two weeks, and we served them while they were staying at First Presbyterian. This happens to be the same church where we have our piano festival and recitals each year, so it was fun to see this familiar place in a new light. I think what was most startling for all of us to was look past the partition set up in the dining hall to see about 30 cots lines up with one chair next to each, where random belongings sat while the people were out for the day. There was a tiny tree in one corner that held a scraggly strand of garland and a few random ornaments and when I reminded them that tomorrow morning, Christmas day, this is where these people would wake and would most likely not find the tree looking any different than it did in that moment. After serving for a few hours, we went about the city to hand out sack lunches with food, drink, Lindor chocolate balls and a gift card to those in need. We passed them out at street lights, singing carols out the window, or along the open mall where we found the homeless sitting on benches or milling around the bus station. What I won't forget about this were the genuine smiles of gratitude from the people who received our gift bags. I often give money to those at the street lights holding signs about their particular circumstance, but they never light up like they did when we handed them our bags. And really, it wasn't much, but to them it was just that little extra something that seemed to make their day.

That evening we shared our traditional clam chowder in bread bowls meal with the Evans before heading home to get ready for Christmas morning. There are no photos of Christmas eve and I'm including every last photo of Christmas day because there are a sum total of 15! I'm not sure what happened to my photographer this year, but I'm thinking he was too caught up in the moment to get behind the camera.

Here are the last two years for comparison sake.....it seems hard to believe how much they are changing!

2012:

2013:

2014:

Christmas morning cinnamon rolls and smoothie:

Legos are still one of Santa's favorite gifts to give:

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas for Jonah without another stuftie:

 From my phone...not as good of a photo, but I love his smile.

Over the rest of the break we did nothing but play squash, watch movies, play board and video games, stay up late and sleep in, took one outing to DC to see the temple lights and in the end we decided it was the best Christmas we've had in years. We feel rested and ready to take on the schedule of seminary (Jared is my new team teacher.....that needs it's own post), school, music, sports and church activities. 2015 here we come!