The First Christmas

On Sunday, December 2, the boys performed in the "Kings Kids Choir" at Calvary Church. The day before they had "dress rehearsal" and as I listened to them sing, it touched my heart in a new way. Between doing the craft about Jesus being the light of the world and hearing these little ones sing "This Little Light of Mine" with the bigger kids singing a new song about the light has come, I was overwhelmed with the gift of LIGHT in this dark world!

My favorite song, though, was "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" I put a version of it from youtube below. I loved it!!! And I loved hearing my boys sing it. Joshua said he was ready to move up to the bigger choir. Next year, he'll be there. :)
I thought the kids did a great job, and I'm glad they had the opportunity to participate. Shawn's parents were in town from Florida and came to watch them perform, as did Uncle Kevin & Aunt Missy and Mom & Ken.

After church was over, we met Mamaw & Papaw and Missy & Kevin for lunch at Old Country Buffet.

We saw Mamaw & Papaw a few times throughout the week that they were here, which was nice. They took Joshua for some one-on-one time on Sunday afternoon. Then they took Caleb for his turn on Friday. He was SO excited that he got to go the "cookie store" with them. They asked him if he'd like to eat at King Burger (what Joshua mistakenly called Burger King and it's stuck with our family) or a different restaurant. Since they had went to Hoss' Steakhouse on Monday night with Shawn, Caleb associated them with Hoss' and said that's where he wanted to eat. So, that's where they went. We were all surprised. He enjoyed his grilled cheese!

On Wednesday night, we went with them to Oregon Dairy and enjoyed ham balls. Afterward, they came back to our house and gave the boys their Christmas gifts, which included Toy Story sheets for Caleb and Mario sheets for Joshua. The boys were thrilled, and Daddy put them on their beds. :) :) :) They also got new books read to them by the voices of "Papaw, Mamaw and Aunt Erica, too!"

Ryan was blessed with some new clothes and a toy that Caleb kept playing with. :) :) :)

Here's Joshua listening to his book.

In the Charlie Brown book, Mamaw got a little 'dutchy' when she said "Lucy" and we all cracked up at the sound. So, they played that page over and over again. The boys joined in, asking if we had heard of their friend "Lu-cy!"

Can you tell we're all laughing?

It was a fun night!

Here's Caleb with his reindeer cupcake they brought for the boys. Ryan ended up eating a majority of Joshua's. :)

We bid them farewell on Friday - they left to head South for the warmer temps. But, it was nice to see them and celebrate our first of many Christmas gatherings. We are blessed by our family!