Christmas Eve

I was very pleased to learn that Dane gets off today at 2pm.  Which means he gets to join us at church.  Yay!!!  Now I won't be outnumbered (2 kids : 1 parent)

We went to St. Joseph's Catholic Church at the 4pm mass.  My in-laws were there nice and early to save us a seat or rather a row since there was a total of 10 of us.  The row was cramped so I decided to sit with Isabelle in front of them (which was actually the first pew in front of the alter). It was great seats because they put on a live nativity story during mass with the children.  Baby Jesus was even played by a live newborn baby.  It was great and the girls were surprisingly well behaved throughout mass.  There was one issue and I feel a little guilty admitting it outloud because church is all about being nice and only saying nice things.  But it has to be said...the lady next to me had the worst B.O. ever!!!  It was very distracting.  She was overweight but that is no excuse for being smelly and obviously not wearing any deodorant. Enough about that.

During mass, the children in the church are all welcomed to sit up front on the alter stairs. Alexis went up and sat on the first step directly in front of us. This is the first year she went up there by herself. Granted I kept my eyes glued to her so I wouldn't loose track of her. I will always be overly protective of my children. Alexis was Miss Social Butterfly. No matter who was sitting next to her, whether girl or boy, or an older or younger child, she made friends and chatted away quietly. I was a little bit curious what 4yr old girls say when they get together but she was whispering so it was impossible to hear. After mass, we saw Rachel, Donavan and Isaac (or Ike as Alexis calls him). Alexis and Isaac held hands and walked around the alter. It was so cute! We took our traditional family photo before departing.

After church, we went to my mother in-law's for dinner, gift exchange & cookie decorating contest. I was excited by how much everyone got into the contest even the guys. The highlight of the gift exchange was when Alexis opened up her FurReal Kitten which she really wanted & when MeMaw opened up the porcelain tea set we gave her. She was so happy. Every Thursday night when MeMaw comes over to babysit, her and Alexis have a tea party. Our tea set only has 2 cups and MeMaw had mentioned she will need one for when Isabelle gets old enough to participate in their tea parties. I have to say it is really cute. It even came with 4 small red cloth napkins and tiny little stir spoons. It was a really nice night!