Christmas Eve...

During the day on Christmas Eve saw lots of finishing off of all those tasks that get done before the family 'descends' on our home ready for the start of Christmas festivities.

But before the family arrived DH and I attended the delightful 5pm Family 'Dressing the Crib' Service at the St James parish church. During this service children are invited to place the Nativity figures in the replica stable which is brought out every year and placed in front of the altar. 

And then the children sit on cushions to hear the Christmas story which is accompanied by pictures on the big screen. My friend Carmen usually narrates the story and here she is about to start. Being an ex teacher, she asks the children lots of questions so they can be involved in telling the story....

Oops, the mic isn't working too well, but that's soon fixed...

So after the service, which included singing lots of Carols, we headed home, ready for our guests who were arriving at 6.30pm. We had a wonderful evening! 

My niece wore her new Christmas dress/my old Christmas dress...and it looked great on her..not too big at all...here's another pic I took of her in the dress...

I had deliberately left the little Christmas tree undecorated because I had a plan...

 And it wasn't long before two little volunteers got on with the job of decorating! 

We didn't take photos of the buffet table, but I can assure you it was well stocked. The young people brought lots of beautiful food, to add to the small 'mountain' of food DH and I had organised. 

And they brought along lots of gifts too...but more about some of them in another post! 

And in a first, I only used china and glass serving bowls and platters. We ate off paper plates and bowls. If my mother in law Elsie is 'looking down' she would be horrified! But each year it's DH ( and very rarely a helper or two from the young people) who deals with the clearing of tables and the 

stacking of the dishwasher and then hand washing the mountain of items that shouldn't go in the dishwasher. So I thought we'd try the 'paper' so DH could have a break. This year we used 'good glasses' and regular cutlery. The family all thought it was a good idea and enthusiastically took garbage bags around the tables, collecting plates and bowls when we had finished eating. 

Just a few small plates and the bowls left...we sent food home with family members, on the leftover paper dinner plates...saves having to retrieve Tupperware later on !!!

All cleared...and Christmas Eve is almost over...

A great night of family celebrating.