Merry Christmas!

What a whirlwind and wonderful Christmas it has been! While we have certainly been busy, I feel like we did a little bit better about taking the time to enjoy this Christmas season. We did most of our gift shopping early, we never got more than one day behind on our family advent devotionals, and just truly enjoyed this season through the eyes of our two- and three-year-old little girls. Our home has been absolutely filled with joy this month as we have listened to the two of them sing Christmas carols together (constantly!) about the birth of our Savior. There is so much I want to share about our Christmas season, so I will just jump right in with sharing LOTS of pictures!

On December 8th, Anna Kate had her Christmas program at church. The children did a fantastic job sharing some of their favorite Christmas carols.

After Luke had a very busy weekend with our youth group, he offered to take a morning off and take the girls to EdVenture so they could go "sledding" at Snowville. They had a FANTASTIC time!

Thanks to Luke's assistance, I got a little Pinterest-happy with my Christmas decorations this year.

Christmas tree made from a pallet found in our neighbor's trash pile. Luke cut the wood and I painted it =)

My little snowman family made from leftover wood from a project of Luke's and some scrap fabric

 

 

 

Our very tall Christmas tree (note how the star at the top doesn't exactly fit!)

 

Brown paper packages tied up with string

 

 This year was Burgin family Christmas and everyone began arriving on the 19th. My parents made it just in time to see Anna Kate's Christmas at the preschool the girls go to on Mondays while I teach Spanish.

Caroline patiently waiting for the program to begin

The children in the 3K class were the sheep =)

 

Everyone else arrived over the next couple of days and we had a wonderful (though at times hectic!) time celebrating Christmas ALL together! All sixteen of us were together for the first time - 9 adults and 7 children, 5 and under, along with two babies on the way.

We spent one afternoon at a state park near our house. 

Aren't these babies just precious? 

Rebekah (11 months) and Colton (9 months)

Anna Kate and Leah. Love these two.

 

One of the highlights for the kids was baking cutout Christmas cookies!

 

And decorating them, of course!

 

 

We all went to church together on Christmas Eve.

Lighting the advent wreath

So much love!

As many families do, we have a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve...and it's always new jammies! This was the first (and maybe last...) year that we were able to get all the little ones matching jammies! I just can't say enough how special this picture is!

Grandpa reading one of our long-time family favorite Christmas books - Bialosky's Christmas

 

Christmas morning!

Highlights in the gift department were doctor's coats from Mommy and Daddy (which I made, and a friend embroidered for me)

 Cabbage patch dolls from Grandma and Grandpa...

 

And personalized duffle bag suitcases from Mimi and Papa!

After my family all headed on their way, we finished our celebrations of Christmas by meeting up with Luke's family on the 26th to enjoy the lights at the zoo. 

 

Merry Christmas, everyone! We can't wait to see what God has in store for 2014 - especially our upcoming and highly anticipated arrival of Eleanor Grace!

Note: I misplaced my camera somewhere near the middle of December and just found it yesterday...so most of the picture credits in this post go to my dad. Thanks, Dad!