Christmas Eve at our House!!

For the first time in my life I did not spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning at my parents' house.  It was a little bitter sweet, but a whole lot of fun once everything was underway. I sang in the choir at the service and Josh ushered, so we didn't get to sit together, but it was a beautiful service.  Richie (our pastor) spoke about Jesus from the perspective of his mother, Mary.  It was a beautiful picture of how human Jesus was and how much he sacrificed to come to this sinful, dirty place in order to make us fit to be with our heavenly Father.  As a pretty new mother, it was really neat to hear about Jesus from the perspective of an expectant mother and the mother of a small child.  I cannot even imagine how hard it must have been for Mary to watch her son be hated and mocked to the point of crucifixion.  It is such an amazing story, I am thankful to have heard it again on Dec. 24th. 

These are some pictures of dinner at our house.  We used our china and crystal for the second time and will now be keeping it at our house instead of my parents' upstairs closet! I enjoyed decorating and setting the table. 

This was my little place present from the dinner at my mom's house on the Thursday before Christmas.

We had a Happy Birthday Jesus cake and cut it with the cake knife that Josh and I used to cut our wedding cake.

I made this Rosemary Pork Tenderloin recipe that I got from my friend Ashley.  It was absolutely delicious. (I will be posting these recipes in my next post)

 I also made some fingerling potatoes with olive oil, freshly ground sea salt, freshly ground cracked pepper and rosemary.  They turned out soooo well! I bought 2 bags of them, one gold and one red.  They were Kroger brand organic and were amazingly creamy and delicious.  I just cooked them in the oven along with the pork tenderloin and they were ready at the same time! How convenient.... Also, note the foil pans, no scrubbing after dinner! (well, all the crystal and china had to be hand washed...woof)

My Pintrest appetizer: Cream cheese and pepper jelly shaped like a Christmas tree!

Someone really likes to dip things:

G played in front of everyone, of course, he is a total ham.

I lit the walk to the house with candles in jars, it was so welcoming!

We ate in the sun room because the dining room is just too small.  It also is the perfect temperature in there when we turn on the radiator heater (best $30 we ever spent at Lowe's).  On the table is my mom's salad that she brought.  I also found it on Pinterest and it was unbelievable. (again, see next blog post for recipe)

Traditionally, all Coe children receive pj's on Christmas Eve, but since G had already gotten his at Snookie and Pop's when he spent the night, he got a book instead.  My mom actually found TALL pajama pants for me at Old Navy this year! It was awesome! They are never long enough!

This is Gardner rocking the baby Jesus from the nativity set that Mary Randall gave him for Christmas.  He rocks him and says, "nigh, night"!

This is an attempt at a family photo...it was pretty funny. G was laughing hysterically and flailing about.  Pretty cute!

Sitting down to dinner:

So cozy from the outside:

So thankful for the sun room, it makes it possible for us to host more than a few people.  I love it! It was such a fun night with both of our families.  Thank you all for coming and helping! We love you!