Christmas Eve 2012

Our friends, the Kolbabas, recently moved to Houston and we invited them to join us for our annual Christmas Eve festivities.  I knew Nate in college, then we ended up as neighbors in Phoenix, and they moved about 5 minutes away from us a couple of months ago.  We are just that awesome and they can't bear to be away from us. 

The real reason that we invited them over was because we needed a "Joseph" for the Nativity.   Jakson refuses, and I knew Grayden (their son) would readily agree.  He is much like Storey.  Only he doesn't shake his hips quite so much.

Storey was very worried that Grandpa Criddle wouldn't be coming over because then who would play the donkey?????

As you can see, Grandpa came and played his usual part.  30 years strong as the donkey.  He's got it down!

Mandy and I were innkeepers, Nate brought a white bathrobe (with Winnie the Pooh embroidered on the back, fittingly) so he landed the part of the angel, Zak was a shepherd with Avery as his trusty sheep.  Jon and Jakson took the part of the narrators again, Crystal, my Mom, and Leanna were the chorus of angels, Storey was Mary (she has been rehearsing for days), and Grayden was Joseph.  I made the mistake of calling him Grayden several times and was quickly corrected.  He's JOSEPH and takes his character very seriously.   As you can see, I spent days working on their costumes.  Dish towels and twine.

Kids make everything about Christmas more fun and the Nativity story is no exception.  It was quite irreverent at moments, but it was wonderful to spend some time focusing on the true meaning of Christmas.  The kids each performed a little musical number (most impromptu) that I wish I would have video taped.   Their final number was a "who can be the loudest" contest disguised as a rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.   We ended the night trying to calm the kids down with a couple of quiet hymns.   Surprisingly (ha!) it didn't really work.