Christmas Eve Pictures finally......

I have some Christmas Eve pictures now and I am finally getting around to posting them. Looking at the pictures just brought back all kinds of wonderful and precious memories! Christmas Eve is the Big Family Traditions in the Clay Family and now the Alan Brown family.....Christmas morning we do more traditions for Alan's family....but Christmas Eve is always really special to me. That is the time that we have the big Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. We then have a special Family Home Evening where we tell the Christmas story and sing the Christmas carols that go with each part of the scriptures. Then we get to open Christmas presents from family on Christmas Eve so that (especially when the kids were young) they don't get mixed all in with Santa's gifts. So Christmas Eve is presents from family members and Christmas Morning is strictly Santa's gifts. Another tradition that a lot of family stuck to this year is that Christmas Eve gifts from family are home made! It's always very exciting to see what people make. We have a lot of talent in our family!

The Christmas Eve Family Home Evening

My sister Elizabeth stepped in for our mother and played the Christmas Carols that went along with the Scripture reading of the Christmas Story.

Then we opened gifts from the family.

These are the fabric framed last name initials that Allison made for everyone. They were beautiful and were perfect with each of our home decors.

My girls decided to start a new tradition now that they are older and getting married etc.... that they would all give each other an ornament each year that really meant something to each other.

Anne Marie gave Allison & John and Aileen the ornaments by my favorite artists that were called the "The true meaning of Christmas" a Santa praying over a manger with the baby Jesus in it. And the whole time they were opening their's I was lamenting the fact that I really wanted one and.......

Whoohoo! I got the big statue to add to my Santa Collection!

Anne Marie also gave all the girls in the family these really warm fuzzy slipper socks that also have some kind of aloe in them that make your feet soft! It's like magic. We all loved them.

I took Aileen shopping to pick out her ornaments for her sisters and brother and she really knows what she is doing. She got Anne Marie a Dorothy and Wizard of Oz ornament because Anne Marie was born in Kansas and lived there most of her growing up life.

And for Allison and John she got an ornament that was called the "Welcome Home to Mexico" ornament and that is were John served his mission and also where Allison & John spent their Honeymoon! Allison and John gave Anne Marie an Ice Skating Santa (because Anne Marie loved ice skating in school) and Aileen a Skiing Snowman. They were very cute and loved by both girls!

My Sister Elizabeth made us all these beautiful necklaces out of washers...that we couldn't believe were washers! We all loved them.

My Sister and her husband got my Dad a Kindle to read books on and so my family got him the leather cover. We got him all fixed up that night and downloaded the scriptures to his Kindle.

I made the pictures of the Savior around the Apostles "The Living Christ"

And you should have seen Allison tear up when Aunt Amber (who is the world best cookie maker) gave her cookie cutters and her recipes!!!!! She was thrilled!

And from Mom & Dad they all got the traditional Christmas PJ's When they were little I made them. Once they became teenagers Old Navy is my best friend!!!!

My dad gave us all a beautiful picture book about the Savior with a CD that went with it of Songs by Hillary Weeks!

It was a beautiful time together as family and a perfect way to celebrate the birth of our Savior!