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.

One of the first things we did upon arriving home was cut down a Christmas tree. We had to hike quite a ways in to find "the one." And even then, I had resigned myself to being a little less picky this year than in years past because I continually felt like a better tree was just around the next bend. Our tree felt like a bit of a settle, but once we got her home and in the house, I was very impressed with her! She's a beauty! Holly was a total champ and hiked that tree out with Conor. I'm so proud of her and so grateful!

This year's ornaments are green felt stockings with a bit of bead work.

And here she is in all her decorated glory!

Oh what fun! Our girls were so excited about everything and that was pretty awesome! I'll let the pictures tell how merry our morning was.

I was going to say that we had a really lovely Christmas Eve and then I recalled what actually happened that day and some of it was really stressful and completely out of our hands. But, we pulled through and made some beautiful memories. Every Christmas Eve, I can't help but think of the year 2016. Maeve was brand new and we ate frozen pizza for dinner because that newborn life is no cake walk! Every Christmas Eve that's a notch about that is a real win in my books! We went to a park and caroled with the neighbors. The girls opened up their Christmas Eve gifts. Buying matching jammies for all my girls was the best idea ever! We read our favorite Christmas tales and then we did our best to usher the kiddos into bed. Christmas is so magical!

Decorating the tree this year felt really calm. I love taking the ornaments out of the box and passing them to my girls to hang up. This year, I made felt mittens (free pattern) and have ambitions to make stockings too, but to say I have my hands full is an understatement! Maeve's branch full of all her ornaments is so cute! Maeve loves the Christmas tree, but she thinks the ornaments are toys. It's a tricky distinction.