Christmas Eve 2015

 Christmas Eve marked the first day I had been out of the house in over a week other than to go to the doctor or to go by church on Wednesday evening for a couple hours. I have been so sick for over a week and though there is no good time to be sick, the week of Christmas is no fun! Though I am still not back to 100%, I am better and so thankful for all the prayers, thoughts and to Jesus for helping me begin to feel better!
Christmas Eve was such a sweet day for us, especially after the past week's sickness. The Doreys had planned to see the girls for a Christmas day while Brent and I went on a date but we had to reschedule twice because of me being sick. We finally decided that we would take them by on Christmas Eve so that they could see Kay Kay, Tom and Debbie because Kay Kay had to work and wouldn't get to see them Christmas Eve and so they could open their gifts.

 Bethany had apparently missed seeing Miley too. She got right on the floor with her and kept calling My-My and patting her on the head.
Here is Kay Kay opening her scarf from us.

 Here is Bethany opening her gift from Mr. Tom, Mrs. Debbie and Kay Kay. They gave her a beautiful soft blanket and bear and stuffed elephant.

 Here are the big girls reading their books from the Doreys to Kay Kay.

 Debbie had the nicest surprise for us. After we brought the girls by, we found out she had lunch planned for all of us to eat together. Especially, since I had not been feeling well, this was a huge blessing and a fun surprise too. Debbie is also a great cook!

We also discovered that Bethany loves all of Mrs. Debbie's nutcrackers.

The big girls usually get together with the Doreys and decorate cookies at Christmas and Debbie had even saved them some cookies to decorate with her. We didn't get to do cookies or several of our usual Christmas activities this year with me being so sick. The big girls were so excited. I was so thankful they had the chance to have some Christmas fun.

When I came by to pick them up they were on a walk with Miley too.
Thank you Tom, Debbie and Kaitlin for the wonderful Christmas Eve lunch, treats and time with your family. We love you all!

Later that evening, we had the Christmas Eve service at Faith Mountain Baptist Church. This is always one of my favorite services of the year and this was one of my favorite years so far. Rachel and Rebekah love praise songs and they love ballet and they had been wanting to do a creative movement ballet for church. We got together with Mrs. Judith and Alexis and planned a Christmas creative movement to Away in the Manger.
Here are the girls with Mrs. Judith getting ready.

They all curtsied at the end.

After their dance, we had the children's Christmas story. Bethany's big girl friend Jenna helped look out for her.

The kids all participated and helped make the sounds of the animals that might have been in the stable that first Christmas night.

Rachel and Rebekah also sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" 

Brent shared the Gospel during the service as well.

Here are our sweet big girls with their candles.
 
Part of the crowd at our candlelight Christmas Eve service during the singing of Silent Night.

Here are the 3 ballet beauties together. They danced for Jesus so beautifully.

Here is the group all back together again! Our friends, the Lawsons, who moved to South Carolina this summer were back visiting in town for Christmas. They were all so glad to see each other!

Here are our 3 little ladies this Christmas Eve.

We, of course, had our McGuirt family tradition Christmas Lasagna after the Christmas Eve service.

Shortly after we got home, Brent took us all outside to point out the full moon. It was very foggy at that time. I happened to look outside a little later and much more of the fog had cleared and you could see the entire moonbow at this time. I showed Brent and he quickly headed out with the camera. This was the view from our house Christmas Eve night just before midnight.

We got the girls all ready for bed and they got their one Christmas Eve gift, their matching Christmas pajamas. Bethany has matching ones as well but she was done with pictures at this point and ready for bed. The big girls decided they would sleep in the same bed for Christmas Eve night.

After getting them settled, their Daddy had a couple of toys to put together. I was impressed. He got the Cozy Coupe for Bethany together in under an hour!

It ended up being a very special Christmas Eve filled with good friends and church family, sweet Christmas memories and family time. It was a very sweet day especially after a very rough last few days.
I was able to at least get the girls' gifts wrapped and ready and Baby Jesus waiting in the manger.

And we are all ready for Christmas morning!

Merry Christmas Eve 2015 from the McGuirts