Jesus's Birthday Party

On Christmas day, we shared a wonderful late afternoon/evening with our dear friends Jen and Mike.  Their friendship is such a blessing and we always just enjoy sharing their company. But for Christmas this year, they went above and beyond to make our celebration of Jesus's birthday incredibly special!  

First, Jen and Mike shared their traditional Christmas Crackers (sent from England by Jen's "mum") with our family!

I love Faith's intense face, she was pulling her absolute hardest. 

Jen came over to help Faith pull too! Inside the crackers were little horns, paper crowns, and silly jokes!! I was so happy we were able to share in the British tradition with our dear friends!!

Then everyone played a round of Qwirkle.

Then it was time to eat our birthday cake for Jesus!  (I know everyone....please, don't be blown away by my amazing ability to decorate a cake!  :-) )

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and we lit three candles...

one, for each of the girls to blow out! 

In addition to our birthday cake, we also had Brad's favorite "Mrs. Smith's crumble apple pie" with vanilla ice-cream and some Cheesecake Factory pumpkin cheesecake (normally, I make a pumpkin torte, but I decided to take the easier route this year)! 

Mike and Anna sharing some goodies together! 

Then it was time for the much anticipated "Pass the Parcel" GAME! 

Pass the Parcel is a traditional British children's birthday game (which is perfect for a birthday party for Jesus)!!!

According to Wikipedia:  "Pass the parcel is a popular British children's party game in which a parcel is passed from person to person around a circle, somewhat similar in its logistics to musical chairs.

In preparation for the game, a prize (or "gift") is wrapped in a large number of layers of wrapping paper. Usually, each layer is of a different design so they can be easily distinguished. Smaller prizes or mottos may be placed between some or all other layers of wrapping.

During the game, music is played as the parcel is passed around. Whoever is holding the parcel when the music is stopped removes one layer of wrapping and claims any prize found under that layer. The music is then restarted and the game continues until every layer is removed and the main prize claimed.

The stopping and starting of the music is usually done by an adult who is not taking part in the game. While in order for the game to be fair, they should not observe the game, in practice they often do, to ensure that every participant has a turn, that prizes are well distributed and perhaps that the child whose party it is claims the main prize....."

Jillian was the first one to have the music stop when she was holding it...

She unwrapped the first layer to find chocolate coins, a lifesaver, and a candy cane! 

Then when it was Mr. Mike's turn, he discovered LOTS of lifesavers to share with all of us! Jen also wrote a clever little note about how Christ is our life saver and the reason we celebrate Christmas! 

The music stopped while Faith was holding it, she was in a bit of shock at first....

but then the realization hit her, it was her turn to open the parcel!!!

On the outside of the black case it said...."Open to discover who God Loves Very Much" and then in the inside was a MIRROR for Faith to see a reflection of herself!

We all opened a layer of the parcel and had a special surprise awaiting us ( I love my Little Kitty band-aids that I share with the girls when they have a boo-boo!).

But when Brad opened his layer of the parcel, he discovered that instead of there being a special treat inside, he had a task to perform! Brad performed a "CRAZY CHRISTMAS DANCE!" for all of us. It was very entertaining and gave all of us a good laugh.  :-)

The final surprise of the parcel was opened by Jillian and it was a new game called Appletters!  It is a fantastic game for the family, especially for our budding Kindergarten speller. :-)  After pass the parcel, we put the little ones to bed, and then the adults stayed up to play a game of Tower of Babel.

Little did we know, that we had one more surprise awaiting us....the Glenn Family CAROLERS! :-) The Glenn family sang a beautiful Christmas song for us and came bearing a delicious gift for us too! They had some of Naomi's famous banana pudding left-over from their Christmas meal that day, and they wanted us to have it (they were leaving the next day for VA)! :-)  The red bowl was nearly full of their pudding and all of us enjoyed it immensely that night and for days to come!  


It was a wonderful Christmas 2011.