Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we had a lot of fun. First we spent some more time working on our snow cave in my parent's front yard, and made some good progress on it! After that we had some hot chocolate and spent the evening at my parent's church. It was a pretty long service, about 2 hours, but the boys did great and it was a really enjoyable time for all of us. They had the kids all participate in recreating the manger scene, and our boys got to wear their shepherd's hat and staff (Sol, Thad, and Ez) and wise men's crown (EJ) during the service until it was their time to go up. It's an Anglican church and while it was a lot different than we are accustomed to, it was a really good time and the spirit of God was very evident.

After the service Garrett and Laurel, my brother and his wife, and Jesse and Jenna, my youngest brother and sister, were all around as we hung out together. Garrett has really taken to Thad and Jesse to Eli, and it was fun to capture some pics of them together. Both kids have a lot of similarities to their uncles, and that was pretty fun for us to watch!

And alas, Christmas morning came very happily! We spent the better part of 3 hours opening up mounds of gifts, with all my immediate family except my brother Braden, sister in law Carrie, and nieces Emma and Navia and nephew Kaleb, who live in Ottawa and weren't able to make it out this year. It was such a great time, and the kids were thrilled with all the gifts that they received! Sol got his much anticipated Bakugan's, Thad got his snowboard, Eli got a multitude of race cars and other toys, and Ez got plenty of the same - toys and trinkets to play with. They all got backpacks from their Canadian cousins, and lots of fun stuff from uncles and aunts!

There are a lot of photos here and I won't drive you nuts with explaining each one, but suffice it to say that we had a great time, and the quilt that consumed Rhonda's life (and mine to some extent) the last two months was a very big hit! I couldn't get a pic with mom in it today because she was tearing up too much, but suffice it to say that she was overwhelmed! Carrie made an amazing family tree picture with tons of old photos for mom and dad, so the two gifts combined to really make this an exciting day for mom! We all had a great time just hanging out together and playing games and watching Christmas movies! We went sledding this afternoon, as it was a bit warmer today, only about -10C, which I'd say is about 0F or so, but with the wind chill was likely more like -10F or so. Lots of fun for about an hour or so, and then we headed in for more hot chocolate!

So at the end of this mammoth posting, we Bailey's wish you all a wonderful Christmas, full of remembering the birth of our Lord the baby Jesus, and spending time with family and friends!