Little Christmas

A week ago, I explained the difference between Big Christmas and Little Christmas (in a nutshell, Christmas with extended family v. Christmas with friends), which is a really good thing, because if you were to look at all the pictures in this post, you might happen to think that this was Big Christmas.  But no, it is indeed Little Christmas.

Having 19 people here for dinner on Little Christmas and only 16 people here for dinner on Big Christmas doesn't make much sense.  Fortunately, I gave up on the Always Be Logical quest long ago.  :)

When photos are many, words will be few.  Enjoy.  :)

 On Christmas morning, Jeff read from Bartholomew's Passage, the Advent book we've been enjoying this year.

 He also read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Matthew...

 ...and Shav practiced standing on his head.  Well, why not?  You can still hear in that position.  :)

 Josiah wanted the job of Gift-Passer-Outer, and the first gift he passed out was this one for Grandma.

 A box of cordial cherries, one of her favorite candies--the perfect gift for someone who doesn't want to accumulate more stuff.  :)

As always, when one child was opening a gift, one or two or more siblings were hovering nearby, eager to see what was within each package.  The joy and anticipation is multiplied.  :)

 One of the boys' favorite gifts was a set of four walkie-talkies.  :)

 David "helped" Moriah open one of her gifts: Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton.

 That was a book we had when Josiah was a baby, and I read it to him hundreds (thousands?) ;-) of times.  Somewhere along the way, we must have lost our copy, but I have such fond memories of that book, so I decided to get one for Moriah this year.

 I love this next series of photos, showing David opening his gift from Tobin, who was clearly thrilled to be giving David such a cool gift (a LEGO set).

 That spontaneous hug between David and Tobin, who used to be Sandpaper Boys to the nth degree?  Priceless.  :)

 Shav got a nutcracker to add to our collection.

 Besides Barnyard Dance, Moriah's other gift was this ball to sort of replace a bright pink squishy ball we had had and Moriah had loved until it got a hole in it and was more of a squishy pink pancake than a squishy pink ball.

 Part of the fun for Moriah was putting the ball in the bag and taking it out again.  And repeat.  :)

 When I took David Christmas shopping, he found this shield-that-turns-into-a-crossbow thing for Josiah and was certain he would love it because of the connection to one of their favorite movies, How to Train Your Dragon.  I noticed though that David REALLY would have liked to have it for himself, so guess what I encouraged Josiah to get for David when I was helping Josiah with his shopping later?  Yep, they gave each other the same thing...and couldn't have been happier.  ;-)

 After the gifts were all opened, Josiah kindly helped his younger brothers with a complicated LEGO building project...

 ...while I cleaned up the wrapping paper and gifts in the living room (see my lovely mother there smoothing and folding tissue paper that we can reuse?) :) and worked on preparing lunch (Jeff helped a lot with that, since we had chalupas and needed lots of ingredients chopped--like onions, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.).

 And then our guests arrived, some of whom were the wonderful Goodwin family.  :)

 I got busy and didn't take many pictures--just a few of the afternoon's entertainment.

 Somebody was exhausted.  :)

 Later that night, Jeff helped Tobin and Shav build wooden creatures that they could then paint (one of their great delights in life right now!).

And so, Little Christmas drew to a close, filled to the brim with the kind of loving fellowship with family and friends that comes only as a gift from a loving Father.

He's the best Gift-Giver of all!!  :)