Christmas Eve 2015

This year we had a full house for Christmas Eve.  Gramma and Grampa and the Troxells were here as usual, but we had the return of Aunt Abbie and now Uncle Zac as well!!  It was so wonderful to have our family here celebrating with us (the Troxells count as family).  This year we stepped it up a bit...when my sister and I were young, we used to come up with a Christmas Eve program every year to perform for my embarrassed older brother and my supportive, good-humored parents, so I thought maybe we should bring it back, Melder-style.  Koen and Doug were particularly excited about the idea and they dove in and wrote a play about the first Christmas.  It was a great project for the two of them, digging through the Christmas Scriptures and working on the computer together (Koen's really into the Bible and technology right now, so it was a perfect combo!).  They assigned everyone parts, even down to Jansen, who was baby Jesus of course.  And they even interspersed music (Aunt Abbie not only had a part, but was also the pianist) for us all to sing along to.  Now, to some, this might all sound corny.  But to me, it was my favorite part of Christmas.  We were focused on the true meaning of the holiday, all together, singing, laughing, participating together.  It was funny, sweet and just beautiful to me.  

So, let's get on to the pictures!  If we didn't all have parts, we could've had some video, but I was too busy!  Tav and Penn were the shepherds, which we decided would also be drummer boys (it was Penn's favorite song this Christmas season, so we had to incorporate it.  We had made drums a few days ago).

Nate, Alex and Andy were the three kings and they came prepared with their homemade crowns.

Megan and I were the angels (of course!).

Zac and Abbie were Joseph and Mary and Janse did a great job playing along as Baby Jesus.

Here come the shepherds to worship the newborn King (who's sucking his thumb!).

Tavin did such a great job reading his own lines!  Penn was sort of confused about the whole thing. =)

When baby Jesus was 8 days old, Mary and Joseph took him to see Simeon and Anna.  Grampa and Gramma of course.  Here's Simeon with the babe.

I got choked up at this part, when my Dad, Jansen's grandfather was saying the powerful words of blessing that Simeon said over Jesus.

Then Anna held the child.  We all laughed because in the play (and in the Scripture), it says that "Anna, who was very old, took the child."  Poor mom!  She was a good sport (and obviously does not look the part of "very old!").

Here come the three kings to see Herod on their way to find the baby Jesus (Doug is King Herod).

Final pic of the play...I think Baby Jesus is just about done!  Is he trying to plug his ears?  He was such a good sport getting passed around (especially since Mary had to keep running to the piano for the song parts!).

Thanks to everyone for being such great participants.  It was really fun to all go through the Christmas story together.  I think this might become a tradition, so prepare yourselves!

After the program, we had a lovely ham dinner and the boys played together for awhile, then it was present exchange time. As usual, our boys got some beautiful gifts from the Troxells (we've already read the picture books about 10 times each!).

It was Jansen's first Christmas Eve obviously, so he was quite doted on and paid attention to by all the boys.

Random awesome picture of Koen and Gramma.  How precious!  This is a framer!

And another framer of these handsome guys! 

And another!  Koen really looks up to Uncle Zac, he's going to want this one in his room.

One of many read-throughs, this time with Aunt Abbie.  (Oh my goodness, Penn's eyes are crossed...I hope we aren't back to that!)

The Troxells left around 7pm and we started the bedtime routine at home.  Once the kids were all down, it was time for last minute wrapping.  I really thought I had gotten a good head start this year, but it still took me about 3 hours to finish.  Thankfully Ab had lots to do as well, so we had fun with "Elf" on in the background, the family gathered round and quite a mess on the floor!

The finished product as I turned out the lights before bed.  So much anticipation for Christmas!