Our Christmas Day

We spent the night before Christmas 2017 at my parents' home.  My dad's church had a candlelight service in which our family were invited to read scripture and light the last candle of Advent, as well as begin the lighting of everyone's candle in the congregation.  James loved that job.  He very enthusiastically lit candles and was probably the last one in the room to blow his out.  

Christmas morning dawned with a cotton-candy pink and blue sky.

It was worth stepping out on the frozen ground in socks.

There's a Pugh family tradition of Santa leaving a present at the foot of your bed on Christmas Eve.  Each child has something to open in bed the next morning while they wait to hear the Christmas music start to play, the cue that it's time for them to run excitedly into the living room, and it gives this mom time to fix her coffee and get the camera ready.

I was a little obsessed with Lord and Lady Cardinal in the back yard.

I have three 2-year-old nephews at the moment, and they are each pretty cute and fun.

Setting the Christmas table is always so fun, and this year I found crackers at Target, which were fun to introduce my family to, but unexpectedly setting off a small firecracker at the dinner table with exploding confetti did rile up the younger diners.

I was sitting on the floor when I took that picture of Ella, and boy does that angle make her legs look so long.  These are the last few years of her looking up to me, I'm afraid.  Physically at least.