Our Christmas Eve was just lovely! I did a lot of food prep, but then we had some really wonderful moments together. Our friends' invited us to their Christmas Eve service and it was beautiful. Maeve participated in the nativity as an angel and even though the church and the people were unfamiliar to her, she marched herself up to the front of the congregation with the rest of the angels without any trepidation! That girl! It was a great service and I enjoyed all the carols.

Then, we went to our local park to carol with the neighbors and see Santa (!). The park was blanketed in snow and while we were there the weather gave us thick fluffy snowflakes. It was nothing shy of magical.

And then, we returned home and ate Tortierre and salad for dinner. We donned pajamas and took photos. I cannot wait to recreate the photos of E and Ira below in about 10-15 years. Ha! Those two. We read our traditional Christmas books (which I always hear in my Dad's voice) and laid out our stockings and went to bed. Christmas with children is the best.

Merry Christmas from this full house to yours!

Some snaps of our winter break cookie factory. The girls prefer Swedish Gingerbread Cookies over Sugar Cookies (that's my girls!), but Conor loves sugar cookies so... both! We (I) had lots of fun making and baking and then delivering.

This is the year the whole family has matching stockings! We haven't had cohesive, matching stockings since 2015. I've been waiting until I found a stocking pattern (I'm choosey about the shape of the stocking) and fabric I love and finally that happened! On the inside of each stocking I embroidered names. I can't wait for Santa to fill these!

It was a real joy to have Jim and Catherine here with us to share some of the holidays. Before they left, we gave them their Christmas gift. It was really sweet to watch my family gathered around the gift with grandparents. A moment I for sure wanted to capture.