Our Christmas

Christmas Eve was busy and enjoyable, but TIRING!

Greg ran sound for FIVE SERVICES!

He was at church by 9:30 AM for the practice and didn't get home until 8 PM.

We pray that lots of people got to know Jesus or became more curious about who He is.

In the 1:1 classroom, we made Christmas trees that smelled like cookies by adding "ornaments" made of ginger, cloves, and cinnamon (except I forgot about the cinnamon, sitting right there on the counter, so no one added that - oops!)

The kids (and adults!) love any activity that smells good.

This is a drawing by Cash.

There is a person and a Christmas tree and the words say:

"God lov evry"

(God loves everybody - I asked him to read it for me!)

On Christmas Day, we planned for some friends of Greg's from work to come over and eat with us.  And we planned for lots of Foosball playing!

Those things are exactly what happened!

I made lots of food.  The "Snicker Salad" is a family tradition, and it's the only thing that had any animal products in it.  

As far as desserts go, I also made pumpkin muffins and brownies.

The main dish was another family tradition that we call Chalupas.

It's not the same thing as Taco Bell's "chalupa".

This is a huge nacho-style assemblage of beans, spices, veggies, and corn chips.

The traditional version has pork in with the beans and spices, but I didn't add that.

I made some shredded chicken on the side for Greg and any one else who wanted to add it, but most of our guests were vegetarians.

Dishing up chalupas starts with corn chips on the bottom (I leave these off), then the bean mixture, then cheese (I left this off, too), then all the veggies and salsa you can pile on (plus sour cream if you want it - I didn't).  It's delicious and healthy and it makes the whole house smell yummy for days.

 

I piled the sink full of ice and Zevia.

Our kitchen table became Snack Central.

I had hummus with veggie chips and pretzels, carrots, pea pods, and other vegetables

in addition to the brownies and muffins.

After we ate, it was time for Foosball!

All these people play Foosball with Greg almost every day after work

(and sometimes on breaks during the day).

There was a lot of laughter and some impressive shots.

During half-time, there was some guitar-playing.

Before our time together ended, we got some photos.

It was a very merry Christmas!

Thanks to our friends for joining us (and helping us eat all that food!)