Christmas Eve!!

Yesterday in church Janika sang "The Nativity Song" and all of the Primary kids signed it.  It was so sweet!  Christmas was different for us this year because we decided to stay in St. George instead of going up North to Salt Lake and Ogden for Christmas like we usually do.  This is the first time we haven't been with extended family on Christmas the whole time we have been married (18 years)! 

Christmas Eve day was spent cleaning the house -- fun fun!  We had a lovely meal mid afternoon of ham, cheesy potatoes, vegetables, and salad.  After dinner clean up we dressed up and then walked to "Bethlehem."  We were originally planning on going to a cave up the canyon and making a fire, but it had rained last night and would have been muddy and cold.  So we decided to make the "cave" in our basement instead.  I think it was a good call -- especially with little kids.  We dressed up and went for a walk down the street.  We ended up back at our house where we were turned away at the Inn but we were led to the place where we could meet baby Jesus.

The kids packed their food to bring -- goat cheese, prunes, nuts, beef jerky, and pita bread.  Rick read part of the Christmas Story from the Bible and the kids meet baby Jesus, brought their gifts, and then ate their food.  Then we roasted marshmallows (I don't think that is part of the Christmas Story, but it was fun anyway)!   Then the kids got to open one gift (pajamas) and then we watched the Westra family slide show on our computer.  The three oldest kids wanted to help put out gifts.  I stayed up for a couple of hours writing a letter to each of the kids (which has been a Christmas tradition of mine).