Christmas Eve, Candlelight Service, & the Gift of Friendship

On Christmas Eve morning while our mini was asleep, our daddy and daughter duo made a delicious waffle breakfast. They decided that we would enjoy a breakfast waffle bar filled with marsh mellow and chocolate toppings with a side of sprinkles.

My big girl was very proud of her cooking skills as we had to pose by the tree for our fun family Christmas eve morning together at home.

 {Daddy's delicious waffle creation}

 We surely know how to get our kids ready for a super SWEET morning with all the fixings.

Our Liam love woke up in perfect time as he too enjoyed a breakfast waffle with a side of marsh mellows.

This Christmas Eve I will forever hold close to my heart. We chose to stay home over this holiday. We chose to celebrate with our little family and to hold these traditions near and dear to our heart. My prayer would be that Jesus would be present in all of our precious family moments this Christmas season and I feel He absolutely was. One of my most favorite aspects of being home this Christmas was being able to go to our church's Candlelight Service.

I am so thankful for an evening of worship, of joy, and of celebration at the Heights. I am thankful that we are able to show such a beautiful picture of God's faithfulness and love to our children. Thankful to experience so much beauty and joy with our loves and our church family!

This year we brought our big girl into big worship with  us. While I cannot wait to celebrate with Liam, we know that he enjoyed a good age appropriate celebration in his room while we were able to concentrate on Aubrey and sharing this sweet story and celebration with her.

 {Singing praises with Aubrey. She's ready for her first candlelight service since she was 2 months old. What a truly special and holy night with family}

And because everyone loves a good comparison photo, here is one from 4 years ago. This is the only other time we have been to our Candlelight Service. It truly was a special time to share with my loves this Christmas.

 

 

After the service, we celebrated the gift of friendship. We enjoyed a pajama and dinner party with our sweet Ogle friends. We loved sweet celebration, cookie making, play date and dress up time, and sweet memory making with friends. We adore these sweet church friends who we call family.

 {Liam-1.5, Eva Mae-4, Aubrey-4, Georgia-2.5}

 {Aubrey surely loves her sweet Eva Mae and Georgia friends}

 {Even a Santa version of Ana made it to our Christmas Eve pajama party}

 After a very delicious dinner, the kids enjoyed making cookies for Santa as well as a few to sample. Erin's homemade shortbread cookies were absolutely delicious and a fun and sweet way to end our evening together.

I adore these sweet memories and the gift of Jesus and friendship. Our Christmas Eve was surely filled with special moments of celebration and fun. But our night surely had to end as Santa would be making his way shortly to our house and we had to get two very excited littles to bed so that we could enjoy a Christmas at home.