Christmas Eve Gathering

This year we decided to have our Christmas Eve dinner in the morning.  Everyone came about 10:00 and we had breakfast casseroles, orange rolls, cinnamon rolls, juice and fruit.  Abby made the Christmas cupcakes and Maren made the darling Santa Clause hats out of fruit.  After dinner we gathered for Neal to share a Christmas message for the family and read our Christmas book and then we opened presents.  It was a fun time.  Again we missed our Jeffrey.  Mindy was very teary when she left for home but we were so glad she came and represented him.  We miss you Jeffrey.

 It is hard to tell but I have a brand new lace table cloth on the table and it actually fits the full length of the table with all the leaves in. 

 We were happy to have River join us for the festivities.  It is hard now with his mom and dad divorced.  He still wants to be a part of the family gatherings and his dad is good enough to bring him by and let him participate.  He also joined us for our Thanksgiving celebration.