I am just going to say right now that I don't have the software to fix some of the color in these pictures or maybe the knowledge. Some are a bit blurry because in the excitement of the evening I didn't hold the camera still or my subjects weren't still. I still added them in because they showed what I wanted to show. End of disclaimer!
We attended church on Christmas Eve. It was the early children's service and it was wonderful. What a good job our pastor did sharing the Christmas story in small chunks and involving the children. All the children had a stick with a character on the stick. Mary and Joseph, the shepherds , the wise men. The pastor would call a group up that had those characters and the pastor (Jeremy) would tell that part of the story. Older children read parts of the Christmas story aloud too. Lots of carols. It was beautiful.
I wish I had one of these scrolls for my front yard. I did find a small sign that I put in the yard that says, JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!
Pipe organ is so glorious when it is played!
We got a few Christmas carols from the children. Precious, so precious!
Look to the upper left. Silent Night.
Mike captured this photo of the candles lit while we sang Silent Night!
We had an invitation to join Justin's (our son in law) side of the family for a Christmas Eve dinner. This is Justin's mom, Julie with the man of my dreams, Mike!
Kristin and Jade (Justin't brother) looking at the pictures from the ski trip to Canada.
I don't think I am going to try and identify ever person. Will cousins be OK? I hope so because it would take a long time to say which family they belong to. 24 people at the festivities.
The pre dinner snacks. The Kilgores have a huge, beautiful house where every one can spread out and everyone was in the kitchen. Well, almost everyone. The kids were playing all over. Joyful sounds of laughter!
This is Tanisha Kristin's sister in law.
Three beauties. Kristin, Brande, Tanisha.
Lucy did not want me to take her picture. Usually she is a poser but not this time.
With help from her cousin I was able to snap a picture. Beautiful girls.
Layne giving me a Christmas smile!
Justin and his sister Brande.
AHHHH! The only Gleasons at the party. We were honored to be invited!
Justin, Mike, Kristin, and Jackie. Kristin's hair is naturally curly. Love it!
Justin's dad, Jeff (one of the hosts) and Jason getting the slicing done. I have never seen so many men in the kitchen. It was awesome.
A lovely cousin.
All the cousins at the dinner table. Love the head in the bowl. Good thing there was no food in it. Looks like one was wanting food thrown in his mouth.
I little more peaceful picture.
Lucy. I tell Layne and Lucy all the time that they are precious and then ask them if they know what that means! We are very, very special. Right on girls.
Jeff and Julie our host and hostess! Thank you for sharing the evening with us. We appreciate it and it was wonderful with all the family and children around. Priceless.
Yum! King crab and prime rib roast.
Cousins with the doggie. I can't remember the dog's name.
Clean up time. More men plus the women in the kitchen. Obviously, I wasn't helping just taking pictures.
More cousins!
Lucy tongue in mouth not sticking out. I can show her that picture when she is with her boyfriend at 18 years old. Truthfully, I love the silliness. It shows joy.
All the cousins, about 11 of them draw names and get each other jammies. It is a big deal for the kids. They get to open them on Christmas Eve. The kids could hardly wait. Justin is helping Lucy with her gift.
After showing the PJ's off they all rushed to put them on.
Here they are and everyone of them put their pajamas on. It was adorable!
The love birds, Kristin and Justin.
This was great. Everyone had to purchase a small gift or ornament and wrap it up. Then numbers were drawn. In the past you could open your gift right after you selected it. Not this year. You had to wait until everyone was done. You could steal another's gift but you didn't know what it was. There was stealing. I got my taken and I tried to use the aneurysm excuse. Don't take it away from the person recovering from an aneurysm. They didn't fall for it! It was so much fun watching everyone checking out each others packages not knowing what was in them. I got sort of protective of mine even though I didn't know what was in it. So did others! Fun!
The end of a wonderful evening. Thanks to Jeff and Julie for sharing their family with us. It was the best Christmas Eve ever!
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