Leading to Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year.
It was so different having our parents away, that's for sure.
We still enjoyed hanging with our siblings during the Christmas break.
 
 The weekend before Christmas we had our annual "Craven Family Nativity"
This year we had the party at my Grandparents church.
It was fun to get together with the extended family.
We don't get to see them much since my parents are gone, so it was really nice to visit.
We then had the Nativity.
Sweet Jayci got to be Mary this year. She was perfect for the part.
Mitch on the other hand...well, it's just typical mitch :)

 My absolute favorite part of the get together is getting to hear my sweet Grandpa's testimony.

 The kiddos enjoyed all the germ infected toys

 The big boys enjoyed BBall

 And Linc terrorized Mack

 A tradition I started with my own little family is that on December 23rd we make Christmas Sugar Cookies.
It's such a fun thing to do as a family and it was even more fun this year because Lincoln was old enough to help me in the kitchen baking and decorating.

For Christmas Eve we kept all our normal traditions.
For Christmas Eve morning we had our traditional 'Christmas Eve Brunch'.
Instead of being at my parents house (sense there is no more parents house)
I invited everyone over to our house for a little Brunch, Christmas crafts for the kiddos, cousin gift exchange and chatting.
Well, that morning Lincoln man threw up. (great)
Then, Jana called an hour before everyone was meeting and said that Kaiders was throwing up. (awesome)
She still was planning on coming, only late.
Needless to say, the only thing that we accomplished was eating, chatting and the kids gift exchange. The weather turned into a blizzard so everyone took off to try to beat the storm.
On Janas and Jakes way back to c-ville, Jana started loosing her breakfast.
The stomach bug was traveling our through our family...fast!

Later that night we traveled to Mike and Melissa's house to have Christeve Dinner and Nativity.
It was fun getting together with James' siblings
We also got a chance to talk to David, who is serving his mission in Florida.
It was so good to talk to him.
We truly miss him so much! We can't wait til he gets home in October!