December Daily {26th} Christmas with Cleaver's

Today was another great day.  It was my last time teaching sharing time this month and it went well.  The theme was "We will live with Christ again."  The kids all participated & are so great to work with.  I love being with them and the way they lift my spirit & strengthen my testimony.

After church, we ran home & changed and then headed to Cleaver's to celebrate Christmas with Zac's side of the family.  It's always fun to be together-especially with everyone.  The kids play so well together and Grayson loves being with his cousins.  Mom Cleaver went all out this year.  She put together an awesome nativity for the kids to do.  She made the sheep costume for Beckham just for this purpose!  It turned out so cute & although he was super sweaty in it, he looked adorable & made the sweetest little sheep.  Grayson was the shepherd & wasn't crazy about the idea all week.  I kept practicing with him, but when it came down to it, he just wanted to wear his brown blanket & carry his staff, which was totally fine with us.  He did good.  All the kids were so cute & the babies {cow, sheep, baby Jesus} did awesome.  Chelsey & Morgan sang/played the nativity song while the kids walked in & it was just perfect.  Perfect length and sweet spirit.

We ate a yummy lunch & visited for a while before we did gifts.  The grandkids went first & Mom Cleaver had put clues on them & the kids had to figure out who they were for.  For instance Beckham's said, "Chunky monkey" because we all call him that, and Gray's said, "Eye see you!"  When they said that one, he looked up & smiled so cheesy because he knew it was for him.  Such a fun idea.  They each got tons of candy bars & $20.  He was way more excited about the candy-wouldn't it be nice if it stayed that way?!  After the kids were done, they went to play & build forts & we didn't see them again for about 2 hours. (:  We had the sibling exchange next and that is always a highlight.  Mom & Dad Cleaver had given us kids our Christmas gift at Thanksgiving time; money to help with Christmas which was a huge help.  Their names are included in the sibling exchange each year though, so we did that next.  I had Em's name and she is easy to buy for because she appreciates anything.  Part of her gift was a birthday calendar I made & halfway wanted to keep for myself...! Tutorial found at eighteen25.com.  Zac had Dad & got him a cool history DVD set.  He loves history & seemed to like it.  Brad had Zac and he got tools.  Layne had me and gave me the cute CTR ring I've been wanting...I had to unwrap several boxes to get to it though which made me laugh.  Layne is such a funny one.  Love it!  Morgan gave mom & dad a neat gift too. She asked each family to write/draw/create something for each parent & then she compiled everything in a book.  Zac and I each wrote letters & the boys gave their snowman handprints.  They were grateful & seemed to enjoy that gift.  After we finished opening, we visited and laughed with each other.  Ryan, Brad & their families & Emily all left soon after that.  Em wasn't feeling great & took baby Lucy home with her.  Layne & the kids, Chels & Chris, us, Morgan, and Mom & Dad played games for a while.  Gray loved the attention from the cousins-Zachary & Madelyn really went all out spending time with him & he adores them.  I'm so grateful he has cousins close to grow up with.

We headed home around 7 to get ready for the Nielson family to come back through for a night on their way home.  We were excited to get a double dose of their sweet family.

We loved seeing the Nielson's again and were sad we never see them for too long, but grateful they'll make us a pit stop on their way to & back again.  Their kids are adorable & they are great parents.  Poor Lyndin wasn't feeling great {she still showed me her amazing smiling & waving skills though} and we all hit the hay pretty early.  The boys did get in some quality shooting/playing/imagining time first.  Totally love this family.  None of us had a great night because we both had kids waking up throughout, and they headed home early Monday morning.  We are so glad we got to see them and hope it's not a year before it happens again!
{more pics from mom's camera to be added later}