Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

*and I'm just now getting around to posting about Christmas*

I have to say that this past Christmas was one of my favorites so far.

Christmas Eve we made some goodies for our neighbors: caramel stuffed apple cider cookies and brownies.

We did a photo shoot at Bonaventure Cemetery. Kinda morbid to do family pics at a cemetery, right? But, it's such a picturesque place. I will post some later.

We had a low-key Christmas Eve dinner consisting of potato latkes with applesauce. I am not one to stress out making extravagant meals 2 days in a row.

After dinner we headed out to look at Christmas lights around town. (The houses that went all out.)

By the time we got home it was past Azure and Vince's bedtime and they were tired. The "fun" traditions I had planned- act out Luke 2, read A Night Without Darkness, sing Toyland had to get scratched.  So, we sang Silent Night (I think) and briefly acted out Luke 2 while Daddy read. All in Christmas jammies, of course. I love Christmas jammies!

After we put the kids to bed I read Nephi's scriptural account and decided to change our tradition of acting out Luke 2. As great as that chapter is- this is much more pivotal and moving to me! Christ speaks to Nephi the night before He is born, as a man and then is born as a baby the next day. It's amazing to me that not only those in Jerusalem saw the star, but those in the Americas too who were waiting patiently for it and who were about to lose their lives because of their beliefs. So miraculous! So timely. I love the Book of Mormon!

I woke up before anyone else Christmas morning to put the finishing touches on breakfast- oatmeal pancakes with apple butter, leftover latkes, sausage and egg casserole, and strawberries.

Then we found out our exciting news that we were so giddy about! That was one of the reasons it was such a memorable Christmas. As an update on the miscarriage- I am still feeling good and peaceful. Thank you so much for your kind comments friends!

I think the main reason Christmas was so memorable was because it was on a Sunday this year. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but I LOVED it. It made Christmas much more meaningful to me.

I loved that we only had Sacrament meeting and could come home and spend the rest of the day as a family. I honestly wouldn't mind if we only had Sacrament meeting every Fast Sunday :)

I got to sing "O, Come, O, Come, Emmanuel" in a quartet. And then I led the Primary children singing, "Picture a Christmas" and "The Shepherd's Carol". Charles was one of the narrators. The whole program was so beautiful!

Azure was happy to receive a photo book from Aunt Tally and Uncle Angel.

The sweetest gift I received was a little notebook from Charlie filled with 48 reasons why he loves me, complete with illustrations, entitled: "A Pocket Guide to Deanna Marie Lamadrid-Jensen Lovability Quotients." I cried and laughed. It's good to read when I start to get upset with him ;)

How awesome is this?!

I loved Charlie's reaction to this gift I put in his stocking:

He's still waiting for a chance to use it. Maybe Halloween?

We continued with our tradition of caroling at Hospice on Christmas Day. This was the icing on the cake of a meaningful and memorable Christmas. We sang to a woman who was very hard of hearing. At first she didn't even look at us and continued watching TV. Then as we began to sing she turned towards us and a huge grin spread across her face. Charles was holding Vince and she kept looking at him and smiling. Charles and I could barely sing because we were so choked up with the spirit. We will most definitely keep this tradition.

Afterwards we headed over to the Coopers for Christmas dinner. Among other things, I made a chocolate peppermint trifle that was really tasty thanks to Emily's peppermint bark. However, I sliced my finger pretty badly while chopping up candy canes with the new knife Charlie bought me for Christmas.

I can't wait until the next time Christmas falls on a Sunday!