A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS EVE

Woke to rain still drizzling down making for a dreary Christmas Eve 2014.

After chores and breakfast it was gift wrapping time as I have not wrapped anything yet but last Sunday night's family gathering gifts.
Hubbie helped which was great, although he would only wrap the square boxed ones , haha !!
We took a break and ate lunch during the wrapping to give you an idea how many gifts there were !
We did get it finished and all the gifts under the tree in time to make a delivery up to the church with gifts for the pastors.

These two thought all this activity was pretty boring !! This was how they chose to spend a rainy Christmas eve. I emptied 1 3/4 inch of rain from the gauge this evening bringing the total for this storm to well over 2 inches.

I started cooking about mid afternoon, getting the sweet potatoes baked for the casserole and getting the ham ready to go into the oven so it could finish cooking while we were at the candle light service at church. I tried the warm and hold setting on my oven for the sweet potato casserole and a cherry pie while we were gone and it worked beautifully and the green beans were cooked,covered and left sitting on the stove top. The girls are bringing most of the other foods so it was a light day of cooking for me.
Chores were done early and g-son arrived to stay with us while his mom went early to go over the music once again and his dad and Aa went to place the traditional "Santa" gag decoration on the porch of the associate pastor's house. This "Santa" gets moved to a new undisclosed location each year ! This is the associate pastor's wife with him after they found him residing with them tonight.

I love the fun these young people have with each other and the love they have for one another. Their kids are very lucky.
The candlelight service was very nice as usual, this is my favorite service of the year.

 I love singing and listening to all the old traditional Christmas carols.

We got to church early so we could help with little EL and also get a seat downstairs instead of the balcony like last year. The church filled to capacity again this year as 6:00 rolled around.

D-in-love plays the violin in the right side of this blurry picture.  I'm either going to have to figure out how to work this "smart" camera or get another that maybe is not so "smart"  !!

As we got ready for the service to start the excitement of this night was evident in all the kids.G-son and El are joined by the associate pastor's daughter Tatum.

G-son was ready to have his candle lit !!!

The kids did as good as expected during this service, both were entranced by the candles.

 The last song was the best in my humble opinion  "Oh Holy Night" , it was a fitting end to the service.

Then the entire congregation carried our candles outside and sang Joy to the World for the community to hear.
It was a beautiful way to begin a night of celebrating the birth of our precious Savior.
All of us plus #2 son who was just getting off work made our way to our house for our normal dinner and Christmas present opening party.
The kids were both vibrating with excitement at the sight of all these pretty wrapped packages They could hardly hold still for one picture before the celebrating began. Sorry a lot of these pics are blurry, part because I can't figure out how to operate this camera and part because the kids were moving so fast,haha !!  A prayer was fitting as this evening began even it was on TV.

Their first task was to hand out all the presents under the tree and EL thought this was great and she was so cute giving everyone their gifts.

Finally it was time to open presents and see what was inside all these boxes and bags.
I think by the expressions on the faces that all were pleased with what was inside the pretty wrapping paper.

This art set was a special gift from g-son's uncle D, #2 son, who is an artist and drew sketches on the first couple pages in the canvas book to give g-son a start. I hope he treasures these drawings from his uncle D.

El loves to mash buttons so this toy was right up her alley.

 One of our gifts to g-son was a sleeping bag to use on his scouting outings.

Some things will take some help from dad to get going.

 Oh My !!!  A real gun, not exactly but a real BB gun !!! 

Kids really do make Christmas fun and these two lived up to all the expectations of the excitement of Christmas tonight, love them so much !!!
After all the packages were opened and the excitement of the evening wore off they were ready to conk out.

Miss Sleepy eyes !!!

I am very happy with my gifts, thank you so much kids !!!!

 Two new charms to add to my new bracelet, love them !!!

After everyone left it was as if the air bubble I've been in for the last month was stuck by a pin. As hubbie and I picked up and cleaned the dishes it is always hard to believe all the preparations for this night come to an end so fast.
As I went out to shut the doors of the hen houses, I made this picture of the back of the house with all the lights on for probably the last time this season.

The last photo of the night , how could we have all this excitement and not include the 4-legged kids who also got new furry toys to play with but had already tucked them safely away in their special places.

MERRY  CHRISTMAS TO ALL  !!!!

GOD HAS BLESSED US GREATLY AND WE ARE FOREVER HUMBLY GRATEFUL !