Our Christmas

Christmas eve was a special time for us as a family, even though we didn't have a service to go to, or any relatives to celebrate with. I made one of our favorite meals, tacos, and decorated the table as nicely as I could. We then all got dressed-up in our Sunday best and ate our mexican dinner by candlelight. The kids loved it (so did we)!

We are thankful for the taco seasoning that some friends had sent us! No lettuce, but we filled our home-made tortillas with meat, cheese, mayonaise, and cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and corn. Yummy.

After our bellies were full, we spent some time reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas. It's absolutely incredible all that he has done for us!

(This manger scene is just wonderful! They characters are little cloth puppets, and the children have had so much fun playing with them the last month. We are so thankful for the friends who passed it on down to us... thanks Toews!)

After that, we tried to take some family pictures. The kids were getting kinda 'goofy' though. :D

Micah got bored of all the picture taking, and found something more interesting to do. :D By the way, he began crawling Christmas eve!

Before the kids went to bed, the each set a plate underneath the Christmas tree with their names on it. (This is something David did growing up as a little boy in Russia.)

After they were in bed, David and I put stickers, candy, and oranges on their plates. Their presents were then placed around their plate.

We told them that as soon as they woke-up in the morning, they could go to the Christmas tree, find their plate, and play with their toys. Well, at 1 am, I heard Aria whispering to Nina, “Nina, come, let’s go to the Christmas tree!” I quickly went to Aria and told her to go back to sleep, as it wasn’t time for them to go to the Christmas tree yet. (Nina was still sleeping.) :) David and I woke-up around 6:30 am as we heard the girls whispering and playing with their toys in the living room. They were SO excited!

Christmas day, we just relaxed and enjoyed being together. Later that afternoon, we were surprised by our friend and neighbor, Inna. She had come to congratulate us on our special holiday. Her son and aunt came along and brought SO much candy for the kids... WAY too much! We drank some tea with them and ate Christmas cookies together. That was definitely a special visit from them, and we are touched that they remembered a day that is very special to us.

In the afternoon and evening, we celebrated Nina's 3rd Birthday! It was a fun day, and the kids were extremely exhausted when it was time to go to bed.

Merry Christmas!