Merry Christmas!

Yes...I am a little late. Ok 3 weeks late, but better late than never, right? It has been pretty busy around the French household these days and blogging just has not made it high enough on the priority list. I will probably pay for this in the morning, but I wanted to post some memories!

Christmas Eve was pretty low key. We hung around the house most of the day, got ready for Christmas and played with the kids. That evening we got ready and went to church for the Christmas Eve Service. When we arrived the main sanctuary was already full, so we headed over to the chapel {overflow} across the hall and took a seat. {The chapel is where we attend service evening Sunday evening.} While our church is pretty big, we really love it and feel at home here. It has been a blessing to connect with families and start building relationships and also continue meeting new couples each week in our Married Bible Fellowship {Sunday School}. The Lord is good.

So when I was 7 we moved to California for a short period of time. I spent Christmas of 1987 there and it is still vivid to me. I remember going to a party with my parents and aunt, uncle and cousins {we lived with them} and me and my two cousins went Christmas Caroling. I remember it like it was yesterday. We would go door-to-door and sang songs and at the end of the songs the homeowners would give us something: a nickel, piece of candy, something small. It was really fun. Anyhow, I mentioned it to the kids and suggested that we should go caroling this year. All of my kids love to sing, so why not. Well, time just away from me and I was not on top of my game and did not plan a night for us to go. Jase and Ally kept reminding me about it, and I did not want to disappoint, so we went Christmas Eve after church. The weather was not that great and that is a hard night, as families have their traditions and are getting ready for bed. The kids were able to sing for a few families and they really enjoyed it. And they can say they went. This year I plan to do a better job of putting it on the calendar and Mae will be a year older, so that will help out as well.

A little bit of footage of the kids caroling.

After caroling, we came back home and snapped a few shots of the kids. So precious, just love them.

When Jase was born, we started a little tradition on Christmas Eve. The kids get to open one present before they go to bed, and Mom gets to pick it out. I think Jase has caught along, but they are new pajamas to wear to bed. Here are the kids opening up their gifts. It was a hit.

 

Christmas morning came and Shawn and I were lying in bed and none of the kids were up yet. I think it was after 8:00 am when Jase woke up. I know the pictures below look like presents galore {but remember we have 4 kids now!}, and believe me there are plenty, but each child only opened 4 presents. For several years I have been wanting to scale back and try something different. Each child opened 1 gift from each category:
1. Something you want
2. Something you need
3. Something you read
4. Something you wear
Now I did have several clothing items in the something you need box. With this cold weather, they did need some warmer clothes. Something you wear mainly had fun dress up clothes. Finn got a pirate costume, Jase got some Indiana Jones dress up clothes and Ally got some American Girl doll outfits for her and her doll to match. There is always room for improvement on my part, but I think it went great for the kiddos.

This past advent season we focused on Jesus coming as a babe to this earth. We added to our Jesse Tree everyday and read from The Word. These activities replaced our normal school time. With Maebry just weeks old, it was such a blessing to take a break and enjoy her and the season.