December 2021- Part 3- And so this is Christmas, Noccalula Falls

We were blessed to be able to participate in our local convent's night of Las Posadas.  Our boys were innkeepers and baby girl was a sheep.

It took us back to when Tuckerman was a little sheep in the Christmas pageant.  :)

My phone was messed up during Christmas so we used Marc's and therefore I have the least amount of Christmas pictures ever.  We had our beautiful, traditional Christmas Eve with BB and Poppy.  We have done our routine so many times we know exactly how to get it all done.  We always kick it off with a late afternoon visit from Santa on the firetruck.  :)

And then we come in and share secret santa- the sibling drawing.  

We had our annual steak supper with potatoes and my Nanny's salad.  

We sang The Twelve Days of Christmas and other songs and then all drove together to see Christmas lights.  Then Daddy read us the Christmas Story from Luke and we put the children to bed while the grown ups wrapped presents like crazy to get ready for Christmas.  

Christmas morning we had our monkey bread breakfast and then burned our tree stump from the year before to remember Christmas past. Then it was present time!  I have to find more pictures! 

After opening presents, BB and Poppy headed home and we went to Christmas Day Mass.  O come let us adore Him!!

 Another beautiful horse painting by Julia. 

Happy days celebrating Christmas- toys on the porch-

Bowling!

We found out that Noccalula Falls in Gadsden, Al, has amazing walk through Christmas lights and we had a wonderful night there!  

A special treat was having my law school roommate Holly swing through town with her family.  We had a hilarious night laughing and reminiscing.  

Christmas with the family

 We had such a treat this year when all of our Florida family flew in on Christmas Eve and spent 8 days at our home!   They flew in Christmas Eve around 6:30.  While we were waiting at home, Santa rode by in the firetruck!   We were still in church clothes-

They got to our house freezing and starving!  We filled them right up with a big dinner and then opened Christmas crackers.  

After dinner Marc read us the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke.  It was very special.  

Christmas morning!

I have to say- the new kitchen worked great for a big family breakfast!

Mr. Huggins Bear was a BIG hit!

I will say we do Christmas pretty big.  First, it's Marc's absolute favorite time of the year and secondly, Amber and Zaza are big shoppers and very generous.  

We had a treat when Tucker came in and played "Holly Jolly Christmas" for us on the trumpet-

And Anastasia LOVES her balance bike.  We have never had one of these, but she loves it and rides it all around the house.  

I prepared our Christmas dinner early so I just had to get it all heated up-

It was such a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL Christmas!