its almost christmas time!

so christmas eve joslin and i were going to go shopping in boise to finish things up, but we decided not to. we ended up having my cousins, aunt and uncle, grandma and gr. grandma, and a family from our ward come over to our house that night for the festivities. now we have never had the big feast on christmas eve like alot of families do, but this year we did for a change! mmm it was delish! we had our favorite, pumpkin squares for the dessert! after the feast we started the traditions:
-we always play santa bingo. my mom is in charge of this one and we play with christmas colored m&ms of course. the little ones always enjoy this game alot!
-then its time to celebrate jesus's birthday. we always have cupcakes for the celebration and then we talk about things that we can do to remember that it is his birthday, like things that we can do for him.
-next is my personal favorite: acting out the nativity! ha so we all dress up for this one, mom assigns the parts and then we get ready. i have been the donkey for many years past because i was the oldest slash biggest, but this year the family we had over had a sub for me. thanks elijah! the three youngest girls were dressed as angels, and they were so cute! i always love that part.
-the night before christmas is always read next.
-this part is quite fun: we sprinkle "magic christmas dust" on our porch to ensure that santa will see and find our house. my mom has a little poem that she reads and it has us twirl around a few times and then after the dust is sprinkled and the lights turned on, if we see it sparkling, then santa is coming! yay!
-after that we just make sure that santas food is ready for him and we head upstairs! we always sleep together for this one, and i love that part! we sleep up in the attic, and so after joslin and i had finished wrapping some last minute presents (while enjoying some brian regan) we joined the clan.