Christmas Eve Party

Meanwhile, back in Dallas, we had a Christmas Eve party! We ate, we talked, we watched the kids dress up and act out the nativity, we played the money game, we played White Elephant, and we sang Christmas carols. And maybe we did something else that I forgot!

Nativity: 

Matt was the donkey, and we had a lot of sheep, I think.

The baby was real and did not get hurt in this nativity, but they baby was definitely not happy!

Dayton liked the toy pickle.

White Elephant:
I think Marshall is stealing a present from someone.

Claire wasn’t impressed with whatever Taylor opened.

 Claire wasn’t too sure about her calendar, either.

 Jennifer got the Irish accent mouth spray, which I still love!

This visor was the best gift, in my opinion! 

So naturally, my dad stole it!

Peter ended up with Marilyn’s Masterpieces, (which is a calendar that was wrongfully delivered to Mel when she really ordered a Cooper calendar that she had made).

Here’s the whole gang with our gifts:

Aaron was sad about his.

Good night to the fun party!

Christmas with the Coopers

Over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, the kids watched the Grinch while we made some brunch. We had a testimony meeting, and then we began the opening of the presents.

Dayton got to start.

Here’s Ryan’s turn.

Then I thought my camera was messed up, so I didn’t take any more pictures for a while. A good, long while. But I realized later that it was working, so we took a few more on Christmas day.

We had a lovely dinner, and the kids and some of the adults even swam in the hot tub. What a Christmas day!

After the kids were in bed, Chris and Rebecca and Stephen came over. Here’s the present we’ve been waiting to give Chris and Rebecca since we went to San Francisco many years ago: a children’s book of Korean proverbs.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas! Claire and Dayton waited anxiously before they could come see what Santa brought for them!

And they were so excited and happy when they saw their new toys!

(I love Claire’s expression in these pictures!)

She seems pretty pleased.

Jordan got some delicious BBQ sauce.

We opened presents.

Claire made pictures for the family.

A new toy that Dayton can use to hit something? Dayton loves it!

Claire made this present for us at school. It’s a calendar with pictures of her kindergarten class on it. - Very cute!