Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was busy, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We had so many important things to do! Bella got to go to her first "Big Church" service (usually she's in her own class). She got to see people walk down the aisle dressed as Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the shepards and wisemen. She also got to hold her own candle at the end as we sang "Joy to the World", and she did very well, although it was pretty scary for me!
Here are the girls after the service (Lucy got to go play in the nursery).

After church, we went to Brian's sister's house for the annual HUGE family gathering. All of the cousins have so much fun together.
Bella's hair was a little out of place by this point. That was probably from running around the house trying to keep up with all of those boy cousins that are close to her age. She was having a ball.Lucy was pretty proud of a little hiding spot she found.
Santa always visits the kids, but while they were waiting for him, Jake pretended to be Santa.
Pretty soon, the real Santa arrived. He kept saying "y'all" though, so I'm not totally convinced.
Cousin Abby is always quick to help with Lucy and Lucy loves it. She waited on Abby's lap for her turn with Santa.
Aunt Lisa took her up to Santa, but I think she would rather have stayed on Abby's lap. Again, she didn't want much to do with Santa. However, she did manage to take the gift from him.

And it was worth it- a Barbie! Cousin Jadyn got one too, and they were both pretty excited.
After that, Lucy loosened up a little. She even twirled around in her new boa that she received in the cousin gift exchange.
Look at all of these cousins! We're so glad to have them!
After that, we went home and gave the girls baths. They picked out cookies to leave out for Santa, and Lucy went to bed. Don't worry, we don't usually let our 19 month old stand on the counter!
Bella tried to stay up with Grandpa who came over while we went with Grandma to the our church's 11:00 candlelight service. She didn't quite make it, which is a good thing since the next day was pretty busy too!