Christmas Eve is always a memorable time around our house!  As in years past, we got together with friends for a great and also spiritual evening of food, service, acting, and fun!

This evening, we got together with 2 other families for our 4th annual Christmas Eve festivities.  We started off having a wonderful meal and ate a ton of food!

After finishing up our dinner, we sat down and determined which families we would go Christmas caroling to.  We each bring 3-4 plates of goodies and then we caravan around the neighborhoods, piling out of cars, tramping up the sidewalks as a big herd, and then singing really loud when folks answer the doors.  The kids really enjoy doing this and it brings warmth to our hearts on such a cold night.  This year, we went to a family who are BIG Utah Ute fans.  When they answered the door, we all sang the BYU Cougar fight song at the top of our lungs!  🙂  He went and grabbed his Utah flag and started waving it in the door!  We all had a great laugh and continued on our way.  We went to 10 homes before going back to our house to finish up the festivities!

Every year since I can remember, we have acted out the nativity play every Christmas Eve.  We have included these friends and the more we have the more fun, spiritual, and humorous it is.  This year, we had all the roles covered and we got a bunch of great pictures!  We even were able to add Isaiah as well as Simeon and Anna.

When we were done with the nativity play, we went upstairs and finished off the evening together with hot chocolate and a bunch of treats!

As we were eating and enjoying each other’s company, Sarah and Brittany played a Christmas flute and violin duet for everyone.  They did a great job!

Once we were all full, tired and ready to go to sleep, our friends left, we cleaned up, left a plate of cookies out for Santa, and the kids went outside with their reindeer food (oatmeal), and spread it out on the lawn in anticipation of Santa coming.  We all then went to bed!

Whew!  What a fun but exhausting day!  🙂  Good night everyone!  See you on Christmas morning!