Dec- Week 4- Christmas!!

Monday, a neighbor friend hosted a used book exchange and cookie decorating party.  The kids had a great time having a little party of their own.  :)

Monday night, we invited Dan's parents over for dinner and gingerbread houses.  Dan's mom made the molds for the houses and brought all the candies and I made the frosting.  The boys were a team and the girls were a team.  The frosting wasn't quite thick enough so the roofs started to slide off.  But in the end, we managed to save them! 

The girls' finished product

The boys'

Tuesday, Dec. 23rd is known to Dan's family as "Christmas Adam."  ALL the Websters head up to Mantua for dinner, talent show, sleepover, and lots of games!
Best cousins! 

Here's McKenna performing Jingle Bells. 

Dinner! 

 Chocolate fountain for dessert! 

Grandma also bought everyone new jammies! 

Most of the cousins.  Some of the younger ones had gone to bed.  

 The girls

 The men

After the kids went to bed, we had a lovely Christmas message from the father.  

Then we went cray cray and made the traditional Webster pyramids! 

We also attempted a WHOLE group one but never made it past level four before we started slipping. 

We played two rounds of Telestrations and then Dan stayed up later playing Mario Cart with his brothers, another beloved Christmas Eve tradition.  Many of us got pretty crummy sleep due to sharing a room with all our kids, but how can you not be happy waking up with these wonderful people!??!

We opened presents and had a yummy breakfast!  

Unfortunately, Sarah Jane's baby Ellie, fell out of a booster seat that was somehow not strapped to the chair it was on and got a pretty good goose egg.  Her little eye also swelled up and she threw up a little more than usual.  So her dad, Jake, gave her a blessing and they decided to take her to the hospital to get checked out.  Sarah Jane said she was pretty worried about Ellie until they got to the waiting room and Ellie started dancing to some music playing on the speakers.  They kept her for observations for about two hours and then sent her home.  Thank heaven!  

Later that day, many took naps and played with toys and Legos!  

We headed home around 4 and started our own little family Christmas Eve traditions.  

We had frozen pizza for dinner...fancy!  The kids wrote a letter to Ellie (our version of an elf on the shelf), left treats out for Santa and took baths. We then Skyped with my parents who were staying with my sister in AL as they were opening a group present from all of us (a few photo memory books). Then the kids opened their new jammies from us.  Anna saw the big kids getting ready for a picture and sat right down beside them of her own accord!  Love this cooperative (for now) baby!

Then we read Luke 2 and acted out the Nativity.  

Even though Anna was our baby Jesus last year, she did not feel like participating this year.  

After kids were in bead, we finished wrapping a few things and set everything up! 

The kids woke up Christmas morning around 8!!  Thank you!  Here are some of the highlights.  

McKenna got this Lite Brite from Dan's parents.  They've certainly updated them since my day. :)  

My boys also spent some time putting together a (Ghostbusters) Lego set 

One of the best parts of Christmas was that it finally SNOWED!!  We had a beautiful WHITE Christmas and the kids had fun playing in it.

We had my siblings over for Christmas Dinner and then went driving around looking at some great light displays.  Ben unfortunately slept through the whole drive and was consequently up late...oh well.  It was a wonderful Christmas where we did our best not to go overboard on gifts and to focus on the true meaning of the season.  We're so grateful for the FIRST gift of our Savior given by our Father in Heaven!