We began Christmas morning (bright and early) by lighting the final candle on our advent wreath.

Our family had such a great time going through this activity during the advent season; I highly recommend it. This is one of the best ways to remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I printed out an advent packet from this website. It explains how to make the wreath (we did it for under $10), and it also includes pictures, Bible readings and songs that correspond with each week’s candle.

We then opened up presents. Jake and Derek were on the giving end this year, as they had taken their piggy bank money and bought gifts for their brothers (and other family members). After hanging out and playing throughout the morning, we headed over to Mom and Dad’s condo.

Dad read about Jesus’ birth before the gift-giving began.

Derek is checking out the load of presents:

A glimpse of the activity:

Oh, Ste-phen!

Doctor Peter…

…and Officer Bubbie

Officer Bubbie after dinner and a few…cookies:

My Aunt Ellen and cousins Jackie, Nick, and A.J. drove down from MI to celebrate with us. In this picture, Jackie was helping Jake twirl in the air like a princess in the Disney Princess Wii game. Then Peter found an otherwise unknown function of the game: those sparkly things that come out of the princess’ magic wand are actually fire balls that you can shoot at other players!

One more pic–gathered around the dinner table…