Christmas Eve Party & Christmas dress

One of our friends here had a Christmas eve party for all of those that don't have family in the area for the holidays. It's a lot of fun and the kids love dressing up to do the live nativity while we read the Christmas story and sing carols. Tori was very excited this year because she got to be Mary and she took the part very seriously (most of the time). Above is a picture of a bunch of the kids and parents during part of the story and below is a picture of Tori with some of the "angels" - Lauren, Anne and Anna.

Below is a picture of Tori and Harrison - "Mary and Joseph" during the Christmas story.

Here are a couple of pictures of Tori with the "Shepard" - Megan. Megan and Tori have played together since they were 8 months old and usually greet each other lately as "there is my bestest friend ever".

After the nativity was done Tori and Megan played Christmas songs together on the piano and were in their own little world for quite some time.

Below are some pictures of Tori in her Christmas dress right before church on the Sunday before Christmas. She was thrilled about wearing her "very fancy dress".

Our little Angel

John just got a few days off for Christmas so we decided to stay and celebrate Christmas in Iowa. Many of our friends also stayed around, so we all got together for a Christmas Eve party and had the kids dress up for a live nativity. When I asked Tori what she wanted to be for the nativity, she said, "Baby Jesus". After explaining to her that she was a little too big to be baby Jesus, Tori's then decided she wanted to be an angel. The following are several of the pictures taken of Tori as an angel and the whole group as the nativity.

The ingenius idea for the halo made out of a coat hanger taped to Tori's back was all John's. We thought it was pretty cool, but Tori wasn't quite sure what she thought about it.

Anne & Andrew were Mary and Joseph. Tori, Hannah, & Rowan were Angels. Megan & Anna were wise men. Claire was a sheep and Ronnie was a shephard.

Nativity

Tori received an adorable Little People nativity set from her Grandma for Christmas. She has just loved playing with it. Her favorite thing is to push the button on top to make it play the song "Away in a Manger". It has also been a wonderful thing to distract her from the Christmas tree, which she is fascinated with.