Eilers 6: Christmas 2013

We had a GREAT Christmas break. I loved having all 3 kiddos home all day. We had a very laid back Christmas week. My family came to our house the weekend before Christmas to celebrate all together. It is always such a great time when we are all together. Sadly, my brother and his family weren't able to come. He has been SUPER busy with running for Railroad Commissioner (more on that in a later post) that they wanted time to just be home together!
Then Christmas Eve, Brent was on call and ended up having to work most of the day. The kids and I went to our church Christmas Eve program and then headed to my dad's to celebrate Christmas with them, in Boerne.
Thankfully, Brent did not end up having to work Christmas day, so we were able to be together as a family once again on Christmas. I love getting to see family and friends over the break and celebrating with them, but I LOVE having that special time with just the 5 of us on Christmas. I love getting to just hang out, play with all of our new toys, but most important, spending time talking about the real reason for the season.
The day after Christmas, we headed to FBG to celebrate Christmas with Brent's HUGE family. I just LOVE my in-laws. I love that we don't exchange presents, that we come together and have a feast, followed by the grandkids put a Christmas play. It is the coolest, cutest thing I have ever seen. This year, Ezra was a Shepard, Emersyn was an angel and Elynn was Mary! Elynn was the BEST Mary hands down! We even had a REAL lamb in the play, thanks to our baby lamb Oreo. Brent's uncle lives on a farm and had a baby lamb whose mom had died during birth. So we got to take her to our house and bottle feed her for a couple weeks. The kids fell in LOVE. When it was time to give her back, they CRIED so hard and were upset. The good thing is, we still get to see Oreo when we go to the farm.
The weekend after Christmas, we had ANOTHER Christmas get together in Houston with the Lindigs (brent's moms side). Brent's sister, Melanie, hosted everyone. It is always so much fun to get to see everyone. Once again, no presents were exchanged and we just had a feast and fellowship! I just LOVE that.
I love this time of year. I am thankful for family and friends.

This is the only pic I got of them with Santa. Ezra was hunting with Brent and missed the party and we never made it to get all 3 of them with Santa for a picture. I feel like I failed with that this year..

Bass Pro fun. This was my attempt to get a pic of all 3 with Santa, but he was 'booked' the night we went and we never made it back.

The kids with Oreo.

Sweet Oreo. Oh, she was the sweetest thing. She followed us around everywhere we went and loved to be pet under the chin. She even let the kids hold her. I could have kept her, but they all grow up.