We couldn't have had a better Christmas Eve! We spent the day and evening at my parents' house with my sisters. My Mom is the best at keeping things simple and easy and not stressful. It's so lovely! Mom bought a bunch of presents so that we could play white elephant and she wrapped up a gift for pass the parcel. The kids had so much fun and some hearts were laid on the line during the white elephant game! But I think at the very least, the kids all left with something they would enjoy! 

I think the cherry on top was listening to my Dad read, "Twas The Night Before Christmas," which he read to us every Christmas Eve when I was a kid. Five of the seven grandchildren (we missed you Hudson and Quinn!) were piled on the couch around him and it was the sweetest sight. So many times over Christmas, I experienced pure joy and this was one of those times!

This was a pretty special thing that we participated in over Christmas. Conor's sisters had a great idea to surprise Conor's parents with a nativity performed by the cousins. My mother-in-law has collected a lot of costumes over the years. Liz borrowed them in advance and the surprise worked! Holly was thrilled to be Mary and Greta was an angel with her cousin, Cora. In the dress rehearsal, Maeve was baby Jesus, but wouldn't do it in the final performance. It was so fun and so special to see the nativity acted out by these sweet children. This was one of my Christmas wishes, but I wasn't comfortable organizing it myself. We had a lovely time all together afterwards. 

One night, we went to the zoo lights. It was really pretty and pretty dang cold. The kids of course stayed warm running from place to place! Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us!

I try hard to make it out to Strathmore whenever I'm in Calgary to visit my Gramma. She's so dear to me. It was lovely to take the kiddos out for a little visit. Next time we'll order in pizza. I love you Gramma!

We learned how to make fancy sugar cookies. My Mom taught us how and it was a lot of fun! The girls especially enjoyed making all sorts of fancy creations. I've never flooded sugar cookies before and it's a pretty satisfying thing to do. It was special to be in town to do this with my Mom and not just seeing photos on the family chat.