Family Festivities Part Two

We spent the morning cleaning up the house for the two dinners that we are hosting this year.  After spending the morning cleaning up the house we went to Ashland to grab a bite to eat.  We stopped by a friend's house to see if we could help them out after surgery.  Then went back home to wait for Kim and her family to come over.  Dakota and Kayla worked on their paint by number pictures they got a couple of years ago. 

It has been Crawford tradition to spend Christmas Eve together.  As the only two of the eight siblings in Ohio we have been doing this for a few years.  This year we picked up the old tradition and had pizza and appetizers and we each had a plate full of the goodies that we prepared.

 Once again the kids could barely wait to be finished to get the gifts that were sitting on the self.  They didn't even take time to finish the last bites.  But the Hex bugs were a hit.  Koltin almost had his battery drained by the time he left.

We split up after dinner.  The kids moved to the TV room to play the Wii and the adults stayed in the kitchen and played euchre.  It was a fun time talking and catching up on life.  

It was fun watching the kids play.  Koltin would get so excited about playing and he would move the controller so fast that he often won.  Not by technique, but by shear energy.

Every Christmas Eve we have sat with the kids and opened our stockings.  Because Santa brought the presents and we provided the stockings.  It helped the kids go to sleep and we enjoy how excited the got.

We ended the night in family prayer, remembering the reason for the season before turning into bed.

Happy Birthday Jesus. (the celebrated one)  Thank you for your small and simple gift that makes all the difference in the world!