Our Christmas Season part 3

 We were invited to a Christmas, music party.  I have never been to a party like this.  One of Tony's trumpet student's family is very musical.  Each year, they invite families that have musical talent.

Tony is playing behind the hanging light in the middle.   

Most of these people were from our sister church.  

So even though we didn't know them, we already had

a bond.  

Will played a song.

Everyone sang carols together & then some families did specials.

*****

Christmas Eve Day

We surprised our friends that live about 45 minutes away.  Mr. Dennis loves playing trumpet.  He & Tony can talk for hours about music.  

Tony took him some trumpet books.

Mrs. Yvonne had some play clothes that her grandchildren like to play in.

After trying them on, Faith was ready to join her brothers in climbing

the tree.

Can you find Collin & Will in the tree?

 

The area that they live in is known for gems & gold.  The kids were so excited to try to find these treasures. They had already made plans of how they would 

spend the money.  I was happy to hear that they wanted to buy us a new house. :)

So far, no luck, but they still have plans of going back to find the treasure.

For now, all we have is a lot of big rocks that we brought home.

*******

Christmas Eve Night

Since Tony is a trumpeter, he has to play on Christmas Eve.  In the past, we have gotten together with my Nanny on Christmas Eve, but since she is now enjoying being face- to- face with Jesus on Christmas, I knew that I needed to make big plans so that I wouldn't miss her so much.

We had our first Christmas Eve tea.  We had so much fun.

 

I am looking forward to the day that we can have traditional tea food, 

but until then, we enjoy the kid's finger food.

:Me:

Notice in the background the 3 big presents?

On Christmas Eve, the kids open their presents from each other.  For the last few years, they have all wanted Build-A-Bear coupons.  So they knew what they were getting.  This year, I made up a present clue hunt.  I wrapped the 1st clue in a huge box.  I made them stay in the back while I hid all the clues. When they came out & saw 3 big presents, they were so excited.  The hard part was having to wait until our Tea was over before they could open the presents. (I had to build up the excitement.)

Collin was a little bit disappointed when he opened up his present & there was nothing inside.  He had missed the clue.  After realizing that they were about to have a clue hunt, they were so excited.  3 big clue hunts.  The excitement was in the air.

After the present hunt, we did Christmas Crackers.  I found these at World Market for $8 on sale for $0.80 after Christmas last year.  They pop when you open them & inside is a little game piece.  When you've opened all, there is a game to play.  Each one also has Christmas jokes & trivia.

After the crackers, we put out sheep food for the traveling shepherds on their way to see Jesus.

It looked like snow.  Faith was really hoping that the sheep would stop by. :)

Our Christmas lights.  Sorry, but I could never get the picture in focus.

After feeding the sheep, we read the Christmas story.

With young children, I have found that this is the best book.  The book is all scripture, but has pictures so there little minds won't wander off.

We sang the 12 days of Christmas using this book & began to sing other Christmas songs.

Since we don't have cable, it was a nice treat to find Christmas movies online. 

ABC Family had Holly & Hal's Christmas Adventure.