Christmas Eve

I am so excited to say that we went to Christmas Eve service in the brand new Point of Grace Church building on the night of Dec 24th! Anyone that has known us for a while knows that this not only has been a really long time coming but that we came really close to not making it in time for Christmas Eve (the building, I mean). The building was originally supposed to be done around Easter this year so we're easily 8 or 9 months overdue. Currently, the building isn't even 100% complete-just close enough to get into the sanctuary for worship. We have a temporary permit but even with that, Mike had to play fire marshall and check fuses every 15 minutes throughout the service (they apparently installed the wrong fuses and it would cost over $1000 to overnight the correct ones so they opted to monitor it instead). Oh, and we got the temporary permit at 6:15 pm on the 23rd...crazy. Apparently God isn't done teaching this congregation to depend on Him and rely on His perfect timing for everything!

The service was beautiful. We even had the traditional Silent Night with candlelight at the end. All of the Whites came to join us for service which made it even better. I wish I could say that Noah stayed with us during the whole thing but he's just too active and can't sit still that long so he only made it through the first few songs. Regardless, it was a very special night that I'll always remember and a great way to start off celebrating Jesus' birth!

Mike's brother's family: Brian and Dayna; Isaac, Lydia & Jared

We tried to get a picture of all the cousins but it didn't quite work out so well (as is typical with a bunch of little kids). I do love the progression of these pictures though.

Dayna: "Yes, Isaac, you have to be in the picture. Jared, sit down."

Lydia is ready for the camera in this one and

Noah has found something on the floor he thinks he should eat.

We actually got smiles from the boys in this one and Noah was at least looking in the general

direction of the camera, but now Lydia has tuned out.

And now Noah tried to crawl out of the picture completely.

That's me trying to get him back in place.

Noah is not in the least bit pleased with being forced to take this picture.

The kids are all finally smiling and happy! But note: no Noah here. We gave up.