Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we had a nice dinner and a program with scriptures and songs telling the story of our Savior's birth. It was pretty special to be with all of the family, even Brian and Julie and the girls via Skype!

The rest of the gang.
 

Add caption

Aw, Grandma and Grandpa Low. Still holding hands. So sweet.
 

The kids real enthused about Christmas Eve and jammies...another picture. At least Addie gave us a real one. These are the jammies my mom made them. I love them!

SMILE! Better...

All 9 grand kids that were there in their new jammies. The best we could do! 

Soon after the jammie picture Jaxson fell into the tree, knocking it down! Victory. 

 

The rescue efforts. Ha ha!!! It was tilting for the rest of the night, but Santa must have fixed it because the next day it was great.

Leslie made shirts for all of the grand kids. They turned out so cute! She made them a "new team" to cheer for since all of their basketball playing kids are now out of the house. On the front it has a basketball that says "Team Low" with "Grandma and Grandpa's Dream Team" around it. She made them with iron on vinyl! Pretty cool.

Jace, Jason and Kamry's youngest (for a few more months at least!) is a really funny kid. He was trying SO HARD to put on this other shirt by himself. :)

The youngest member of Team Low.

 

10/13 Team members with their coaches. Especially loving Zach and Talia's poses here.

 

Cynthia's says coach and Brian's says Assistant Coach. :) Perfect.

Right after we opened the gift, a surprise visitor came. SANTA!!! And it was a surprise for everyone! So magical. I BELIEVE!

 

Adaleigh is just entering that "you are a stranger" stage. A stranger with a crazy hat. Where's my mom?!

Kate right after rubbing her chin while saying "That's not the real Santa, that's just a guy in a suit. Isn't it??" :) I don't know Kate. He looked pretty real to me and appeared magically!!

 

Jace was so funny! All the kids were posed for a picture but he could not take his eyes off of Santa! He stood there just staring at him! Pretty cute.

Once on Pintrest there was a pin on how to make your tree glow, so I played with my camera settings like they said and made it a bit more glowey. I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

And at night, when everything is quite I love to just sit in the living room and look at the tree, listen to quiet Christmas music, and be sentimental. This year we saw a lot of heartache and struggles with so many people that we love. Life has seemed too real at times. I miss the innocence of youth where I was basically oblivious to hard things. I know that is no way to live life, but it was easier than feeling so helpless and not in control. Throughout this year we have ultimately found strength and answers only in our testimonies of Jesus Christ and in the beliefs we have through His restored gospel. There is a Plan. Heavenly Father knows all and is in control and can help us. Our Savior suffered and died for us so he could take away pain and sorrow and allow us to live with Him again and so that he could understand everything we go through on Earth and help us through our trials. I am so grateful for the gospel and for a Savior. I am grateful for hope and faith in him. I am so grateful for his birth that we celebrate at Christmas time.

Santa came!!! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.