christmas eve

we had planned a lazy christmas eve morning...so we were surprised when the doorbell rang!

but what a wonderful surprise...manny! on his way to the hospital, he brought the kids their gifts. vivian loved her markers and sketchbook, but bauer (who loved his thomas train) was most excited to see manny. :)

after a yummy pancake breakfast and getting dressed, the day's and mulhearn's arrived. and after a late christmas lunch, the unwrapping began...

brother and sister worked as a team...

but vivan had to go solo to unwrap the princess stove the crow's sent.

then it was on to the big gift santa left at gege and pawpaw's new house in tennessee, with help from setler....a train table!!

(i love this picture...surely gege knows how to help all those grandkids, how sweet!!)

next it was time for church...the boys in plaid look super handsome! :)

and might i add, vivian did a GREAT job singing "away in a manger"!!

i might, or might not, have cried with happiness!!! ;)

we managed to get a day family picture too, but were also joined by the lee's, the poole's, and (of course) popa and dotdot. i found myself smiling the ENTIRE service!! i could not help it! there i was, squeezed into two tiny pews for an hour and a half, with 18 people, sweating like a monkey at the zoo...and it was the best feeling in the world! i quickly realized that everywhere i looked was someone that i loved very dearly...what a blessing!!! thanks everybody for coming!! :)