Tradition . . .Christmas Eve

I love tradition . . .maybe it is because I don't have any from my family . . .so I love the ones we have (most of them anyway) with Mark's family and the ones we have started. Pizza on Christmas Eve before the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at our church is a great tradition. We've been doing it since before children!! We all gather at my mother-in-law's house and we order pizzas from a place near her home. Now that we have so many young adults, it takes a lot of pizza!! We order "nice" pizzas on Christmas Eve - not just the kind that you can get anytime. We always order a Mona Lisa - yummy!! We usually have one with just pepperoni. We usually order a vegetarian which is also yummy! The food is yummy but the fellowship is even sweeter. I was able to snap a pic of Uncle Bob and Laura - Laura and Glenn were the first babies in the family and Uncle Bob now has three big ol' boys . . .he has always loved Laura and she knows it!!Lauren in now joining in our traditions . . .so good to have her as a part of the family.

ok - I "embarrassed" my kids by dragging the camera into the sanctuary. There is a "no flash photography during any service" rule at Trinity and we have always discussed how rude folks are when they take pictures . . .so I sneaked my camera in and I turned off the flash . . .and I held it quickly up in the air and got a pic of the Chrismon tree. You can see some of the youth choir members in the background and you can also see the big pipes for the pipe organ!!

This is one of my favorite moments of the year . . .Christmas has come. I love when we are singing "Silent Night Holy Night" and everyone raises their candle into the air. Some years I have been a communion server and so I see it from the front of the church but this year I was sitting surrounded by two rows and family and friends . . .ah . . .Christ is born. Christmas has come.

I walked up front after the service to snap a picture of baby Jesus. This is a Fontanini baby Jesus and the attention to detail is beautiful. I love how we have the lantern hanging by him - the light of the world.

Pizza and Holy Communion and family and friends . . .good Christmas Eve tradition!! Yes, it is!