Christmas Bells are Ringing

It's hard to know where to start when I've been gone from the bog so long.  I guess with an explanation; you see, sickness arrived and did not want to leave this house.  We all had a round a colds including a sinus infection for me followed by three days that we were all well and rushing around trying to accomplish our Christmas tasks, then another round of colds for everyone, another sinus infection for me, and a double ear infection for Creed that forced his eardrum to burst,  We recovered just in time to make it down to stay with 

all of my family for Christmas only to learn that they had the stomach flu and then we had the stomach flu.  Lovely!  The good news is that it all cleared up by the afternoon of Christmas Eve and we were able to enjoy a fun day together.  The day started out with a sledding ramp my family built across the deck in the backyard.

Then the evening was all about family traditions.  We started with a Raclette dinner.  Raclette is a traditional Swiss dinner that Swiss Shepherds were said to eat so that's what my family eats on Christmas Eve.  The shepherds would melt cheese on hot rocks by the campfire  and then pour the cheese onto bread or potatoes.  The modern version uses a raclette grill and each person has a little tray they fill with cheese and slide into the middle of the grill so the cheese melts while they cook different meats and onions on top of the grill.  It's all then poured onto boiled new potatoes.  My friend Rachel and Swiss and also serves Raclette with sourkraut, pearl onions, mustard, and tiny pickles but we just stick with potatoes, meat, and cheese.After dinner it was time for the Christmas pageant.  Creed was a very cute shepherd.I thought once we had kids, we got out of dressing up, but I was wrong.  So here's the whole group.  Notice anything weird?Yep, the three brother-in-laws wanted to be the three wisemen (because they were so wise to marry Borup girls) so Eli was left being Joseph while Marissa was Mary.I was an angel

The little boys were shepherds and Logan was Jesus.  Cole kept calling him "The Little Lord Jesus" and it kept making me giggle when he said things like, "The Little Lord Jesus is eating candy from the tree"

After reading the scriptures we all opened our Christmas pajamas and since I neglected to take a photo of Creed in his, this is the best that I can do. Just imagine his cute smiling face.