Merry Christmas: Making New Traditions

      It's Christmas Day, and we are sitting at the airport waiting to board our flight to LA, so this will be a quick post.  Amazingly, we managed to get here with plenty of time to spare.  We have learned that when you travel with children, over-preparedness only makes the trip more enjoyable.  So, we are here and the girls are bringing holiday cheer to all we encounter (so far).
      We have really enjoyed having Christmas with just our little family, though we miss seeing everyone we love.  Last night we did the Christmas Eve Service at Fellowship, and the girls did pretty well.  Lily did great, and Bella is just at that age.  It was a great service, and this year, I have been struck by how beautiful carols really are.  I wish we sang some of them year round, because the lyrics are so joyous and speak to the heart of who we are.



The girls enjoyed "helping" me pack for the trip.



We made birthday cupcakes for Jesus the night before and had them with dinner.




My family usually did a really nice dinner with filet mignon on Christmas Eve, but since John doesn't love steak, we decided to go the seafood route.  We had a pastry with scallops, gouda cheese and a lobster sauce.  It was heavy, but really good.  I found the recipe here on All Recipes and did a pasta top to change it up a bit.  Yum.
      We read the Christmas story, opened a present and then watched the movie, White Christmas.  The girls got to see about 30 minutes - through my favorite song, Sisters.
      Christmas morning brought tons of fun.  Lily was excited to open presents, and Bella was excited to be enjoying life with us all.




Here's Bella with her new owl hat, and Lily with what we call her "crazy eyes."  Awesome.



I made a Christmas Breakfast Casserole and Monkey Bread for breakfast, and John and I had Christmas mimosas.  It was really wonderful to spend relaxing time together and celebrating Christ's coming for us. Love came down - Merry Christmas to each of you!