Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was the conclusion of our weekend of services at the Church @ the Springs, our church in Ocala, FL. We had three services at 4:00pm, 5:30pm, and 7:00pm. My parents are here from Illinois, so they joined us at the 7:00pm service.

Our usual tradition is to have take-out Chinese for dinner. However, we didn't want to wait to eat until 9:30 when we got home and settled. So, for a twist on our usual tradition, we ate at a Chinese buffet in Ocala.



After we arrived home around 10:00pm and put a sleeping Carys to bed, we read the last part of Jotham's Journey and opened the Christmas Eve gift. Typically, the kids each open one gift on Christmas Eve. They've received matching winter pj's, mom-made fleece blankets, new hats and gloves. However, it never gets very cold in Florida, and eventually you run out of "winter" ideas. So, this year, I was looking for a good idea.



Our band leader at church got married in November, and we bought them an item on their registry as a shower gift, TV trays. These were really nice. Every week at our house we have Family Fun Night, where we eat homemade pizza and watch a movie. The kids have been sitting on the floor using bed trays to put their food on. Well, Landon is getting too big to put his legs under this tray. So, we thought the TV trays would be great for this. They loved them.



Gerren put the rack together by himself!



Chase was exhausted by the time we were through!