and it starts

Let the festivities begin!!

 Jeff and I in our "Ugly Sweaters" 

Adelle had heard us talking and comes out of her room and says, "Dad, that's ugly." Great ;) I told her that was ok to say to us but not very nice to say to other people. ??

 Here are a couple of the contestants in the Ugly Sweater Contest.

 Gage was the little elf of the night. So cute. Everyone there got their baby fix.

 And the winner is..... 

Jeff was pretty pleased to take the trophy this year.

I am sad I didn't get a group shot. He did have some competition. There were 18 contestants and he got the win!!

 Today we went tree hunting. Adelle found this, "pretty red tree."

 Braxton pretending the tree was Santa, he's developing quite the sense of humor.

 Here we are in front of THE tree.

 The man. Being manly.

 Just plain cute and picture worthy.

 Then this afternoon we prepared for our churches Christmas party.

These kids love any chance to dress up.

 Jeff and I were Joseph and Mary

(basically we had the baby they wanted to be Jesus)

 Gage was baby Jesus.

 It was a really beautiful program with music performed by various couples and small groups.

All the children there sang "Away in a Manger." 

I love things like this. Lots of people coming together. Everyone doing their own small part. The Spirit working and touching hearts. Good friends and food and music.

This is Christmas.