Christmas Eve and Day

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Our annual Grice/Gavin/Lowis Christmas breakfast was at our house this year. We had so much fun planning and decorating the tables. That's always the highlight for me- preparation. :)

Christmas Eve

This is the yummiest, cheesiest, potato casserole you'll ever have! Christmas Eve was spent preparing all the foods we could, cleaning and decorating.

Most of the Christmas greetings we've gotten this year.

KK was patching his coveralls. I had to document his first real sewing attempt! :)

We picked up this festive center piece that Nate had ordered for Gram from the Apple Smith while we were in Holdrege. 

It was so cold Christmas Eve! Our furnace just could not keep up. The temperature was a steady 60-61 all day. Burr!

:-/

Mom wrapping the silverware.

She did a beautiful job!

Abi cutting up some fudge.

While at the Smith's store, Sheila stocked us up with yummy flavored coffees and teas.

Fresh white bread

Fresh wheat bread

I made cake balls out of cake remnants that Dad got from some cakes he'd made for someone. These are freezing before they get dipped in almond bark.

Getting ready to dip them.

These were orange flavored and the others were almond.

Sammy made these cute little paper shoes.

He said he was cutting and the shape turned out like shoes. So, he made another one to make a pair of shoes.

Abi, making a present for Brie.

We got about 2-3" of snow. I got my wish for a white Christmas after all!

Sewing Brie's surprise

I got Daddy some special sweetener and made him brownies from it. :) They turned out really well!

We decided to have a fun family night with crackers, cheese, smokies, cheese sticks, pizza rolls, etc.

Ah, barbecued smokies!

Everybody looks forward to treat nights. :)

Daddy with the rest of his sweeteners.

Here I am, presenting him with his special brownies.

The boys got to do the candy bags this year. They went all out! As Josh put it when questioned why they went to all that trouble, "Well, we wanted to do it really well so that you girls would let us do it again." :)

For the name tags, I chose a word that fit each personality and wrote out the word's definition. For example, Nate's was, Boyant: Cheerful and optimistic.

Ben came over about 8 to do up the candy bags and ended up staying till midnight. :) Lots to do Christmas Eve! :)

Christmas Day

Rise and shine, it's Christmas morning!

When we were staying in the Dublin hotel, they had these chocolate croissants that were really good. Abi wanted to replicate them for Gram. They turned out very yummy! 

Time's ticking... It's almost time for the sausages to go in!

Coffee station

Cheesy potato casseroles

Sam had gotten a model airplane, so Daddy was helping him put it together. It was so sweet to listen to them discuss how this should go and how that should go.

Chocolate stuffed croisantes

We spoiled the cat on one of those really cold days by letting her in the house. Now she thinks that she needs to come in to get warm! :)

Mom got Gram some pumpkin spice syrup. :)

Peanut butter cup coffee

Sea salt caramel mocha sounds disgusting- right? No, it's about the best tasting coffee you'll ever find!

Pancakes

Finished pancakes, waiting to be warmed.

I asked Ry and Kels if they wanted to do the bacon this year. It was a purely selfish request, 'cause they make the best pepper and maple flavored bacon! :)

Ope, the star of the show is here! :)

The bacon professional

Ben tried to steal a piece of bacon. Thankfully, Ryan was armed with a fork so he was able to ward the thief off. :)

Oh, joy! two cell phones!

Piggy back on Grandpa

A cutie for a cutie. :)

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." My dream came true! We didn't have to have a brown Christmas!

Uncle Ben and Baby

The toast holder is from Ireland...

Happily, our family group has gotten bigger, but sadly, that means we have to have two separate tables.

Poor Sweetie was so tired!

Ben's plate was loaded with 3 pancakes, a couple pieces of bacon, etc.

Ben had Katelyn's name (much to everyone's chagrin). She just looked and looked at the blocks he gave her, then she went wild! :)

Guess what?! Katelyn can sit up by herself now! 

Playing with the Noah's ark that Gram gave her.

Of course, ya gotta stick the bows on somebody, and what cuter subject could one find? :)

Sweetest present ever!

Ryan had Ben's name. He and Kels decorated this really cute pink ballerina piggy bank for him and put it in a bright pink bag with pink tissue paper. Make sure you read the note attached to "Priscilla." :)

Mm... Egg nog... See what you missed out on, Nate?!

Kels and Gracie having thumb wars.

Somebody had a bunch of rubber bands so there was a constant rubber band war going all day.

Poor Girlie finally succumbed. 

We were going ice skating for the afternoon, so Ryan had to wake Katers up. She really didn't want to get up! :)

After skating, we gathered back at our house for snacks.

'Member those cake balls? Here they are, and oh, so good!

A lady that we clean for gave us a big bag of gourmet popcorn. There were four different flavors- Toffee almond crunch, Chocolate, Peppermint, and White Cheddar.

She loves spoons!

To cap the evening off, we played Mad Libs till 10pm! Oh, my, we laughed so hard my face hurt when we were done! :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Let's remember the reason for celebrating Christmas. We got a card from someone with this message on it,

If our greatest need had been information,
God would have sent us an educator

If our greatest need had been technology,
God would have sent us a scientist,

If our greatest need had been money,
God would have sent us an economist,

If our greatest need had been pleasure,
God would have sent us an entertainer,

But our greatest need was forgiveness,
So God sent us a Savior.

 And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins. Matt. 1:21