Christmas with the Alves

Tia Brenda and Bear were prepared for Christmas!  The kids worked on a project making their own stockings for Christmas on Christmas Eve.  They had a lot of fun with the project.  Thank you sisters!!!

Vavo was busy making play dough cupcakes with Magdalene.

 Magdalene, Tobias, and Jordan were coloring our nativity set in preparation for Christmas.

It's a tradition to make chocolate chip cheesecake on Christmas Eve.  Tia Brenda has little helpers!

Philomena!

We decorated the Christmas tree!

 Christmas Eve is complete with Mozambique shrimp!  It's a tradition we have kept in our little Jacobs family.  Jordan loves the shrimp!

 Merry Christmas!  What a blessing to spend Christmas with my favorite ladies.

Jordan with the family

While we were enjoying our shrimp meal, the kids were enjoying a Christmas cartoon.  Tobias seems fixated lately on nail biting and placing his toes in his mouth.  Hmmmm.....

We even made some Advent candles to continue with our family's tradition of Advent singing and preparing our hearts for Jesus.

Good night!

 Merry Christmas little ones!

 After reading The Legend of the Poinsettia, Magdalene wanted to give a gift to Jesus.  She decided she wanted to show Baby Jesus more love.  She worked on a letter that morning with plenty of heart stickers.  It was so touching to see her working on the letter.

On another note, I thought on the trip it would have been fun for the ladies and Magdalene to wear sticker earrings.  Magdalene is wearing some in this picture, but she did not care for them.

We called Magdalene our Christmas star, because of her love for The Legend of the Poinsettia.  You need to read the book!  It's very good!

Good morning Christmas sweater!  You look handsome.

Here is our Christmas rose.  She is wearing a cute rose clip in her hair while Magdalene wore a poinsettia in hers.

 Bear had a great idea in placing a special ornament at the top of the tree.  There was a surprise in the box for us to open after Mass.

Isn't that such a cute idea!  Thank you sisters!  The kids were excited to see Baby Jesus.

 The singing angels were a hit on the trip.

 Christmas breakfast!

These two pictures remind me of little Christina.  I was either reading a book....

.......or sucking my thumb and playing with my ear.

 Christmas meal

 The kids were so tired (adults as well) that we finished opening presents the next morning and spread out the gifts to open on special occasions.

 We exchanged our Secret St. Nicholas gifts.  I was so excited that I got Jordan.  It was so hard to not buy him a Christmas gift this year, but we decided to just save our money for the trip.  When I pulled his name, I immediately bought items the church bookstore.  I was pleasantly surprised to find four new skirts from my Secret St. Nicholas.  They were from my sweet husband.  We pulled each others' names!

 Now this one loves putting her finger in her nose.

 We went to see beautiful Christmas decorations.