Merry Christmas - Christ is Born!

December has flown by as we have celebrated Advent.  Though we were kept very busy (and hope to slow down a bit more next year,) it has been a beautiful season with much memory-making!

We started the Christmas season out by participating in our town's live nativity again.  Toby was a wise man and the other three were shepherds, with their sheep Hattie!  :-) 

The first Sunday of Advent, our church presented a beautiful Christmas show, focused on the Cross and the gift of Jesus.  All of our boys participated, and even though George was running a fever and felt terrible, he did an amazing job of singing his duet with Jack for "Away in a Manger."  

(Jack is so serious, getting ready for his line!  The church was PACKED...a bit intimidating!  They all did a wonderful job!) 

Here is a collection of video clips from that night's performance - Toby saying his lines, George and Jack singing their precious duet, and our kids' group doing "It's About the Cross" - don't miss Joe's movements at the end!!!:-)

On December 4th, we celebrated the two year anniversary of Toby becoming our son!  We had borscht and meatballs for dinner (Toby's request) and a Star Wars movie with pie (complete with Chewie pajamas!) that night. 

The boys completed their second year of blessing a family as Secret Santas!  They had so much fun.  Jack gets to wear the bearded hat, since he is the stealthy one who leaves the gifts, knocks on the door and runs...yelling, "HO HO HO!" the whole way back to the car!

We had a fun Christmas movie night with our sweet friends the Hasemeyers...

...enjoyed one-on-one time with Mom to go shopping for their brother gift exchange...

...had a fun homeschool group Christmas party with gingerbread decorating, Christmas carol pictionary, and a hay ride/carol sing...

...and had a wonderful night of soup, rolls and the Nutcracker ballet (on Amazon Prime) with our other new friends, the Hales! 

The boys wanted to repeat their gingerbread house-decorating activity...though mom made the mistake of letting them do it at night before bed and the sugar high kept them up until past 11pm! 

Jack created another beautiful Lego nativity scene!  He was so happy that they received a set with a Lego baby in it this year, which he immediately declared would be baby Jesus!

We got our first real snow of the season on the night of December 20th - which happened to be the night some friends were staying on their way from Idaho to Arizona.  What fun to have friends tucked in with us as the snow came down! 

Hattie acts like a puppy in the snow!

Since our friends have all read "Little House in the Big Woods" like we have, we of course had to do maple sugar snow!  (Of which Hattie happily partook!)

The snow made for new opportunities for outdoor fun!  Though I wasn't along to take photos, on one trip, Josh took all four boys and Hattie sledding.  And yes, Hattie WENT sledding with Jack down the hill!  She LOVES these outings and seems younger and more full of life during them - but then collapses on her bed and sleeps for hours afterward!  One day, Josh took just Toby and George and Hattie on a hike up the snow-covered mountain behind our house.  He took these fun pictures!

One of the new traditions we incorporated this year was Shepherd on the Search, a gift from Grammy last year.  As the "Elf on the Shelf" activities rage around us, this was an equally fun, but more meaningful activity to do with the boys.  The shepherd, whom the boys named Levi, spent the season of Advent searching for the newborn King Jesus!  The boys had to find him each morning and we did many daily activities to focus our hearts on the real purpose of this busy season. 

Here are some of the funny places Levi showed up!  

And finally...on Christmas morning....he was found right where we should all be, kneeling at the manger!

We had a beautiful Christmas celebration, starting our morning with Josh reading Luke 2 from the Bible...

...a few stocking presents, breakfast, then the rest of our gifts.  Their main present from Mom and Dad were bows and arrows (with rubber tips), and mom-made knights' tunics and crochet chain-mail hoods!  They were ECSTATIC!  

 They aren't quite knights yet...a little more training to go, but watch out for these Meyer squires!

Then the brothers exchanged their secret sibling gifts!  Oh the expressions on their faces!  We let the boys have a larger budget for gifts, so each brother chose a Lego set (of course!) for their chosen brother.  Joy upon joy!

Joe had Jack, and got him a World War II fighter aircraft Mega Block set that Jack had been aching for.  You can see, by this tackle of a hug, it was well received!!!

Joe was thrilled with a new puzzle, in addition to his Lego set!  (I love that he gets excited by a puzzle!)

The set that George had been longing for was way over the budget, but Jack (who didn't even draw George's name) donated some of his own money to put toward it and we were able to use some rebates to enable Toby to make Sir George's wish come true!

And while mom prepared Christmas dinner, Joe took a nap with Dad! 

We are so grateful for the amazing gift of Jesus.  He is our everything, and we rejoice with the angels as they proclaimed, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (Luke 2:14)  We look forward to this new year!