An incredibly fun day...

But one completely failed photography attempt. Today was packed with Christmas goodness. We started off the day with an awesome church service, complete with Owen's first ever public performance. His Sunday school class performed a few songs on stage at church...I was QUITE nervous about how he would do since he is really, really shy. To my surprise, he actually did REALLY well. Maybe that's because he got to hold Auntie Allison's hand the whole time...but whatever the case, instead of the screaming and protesting I expected we actually saw a little boy who did a few of the hand motions and whose mouth did utter a few words to the songs. I was quite proud of our little guy. And let me just tell you...being nine months pregnant makes it even that much harder to hold back the tears when you see your little one among a whole bunch of sweet kids singing Christmas songs on stage. It was SO sweet! See below: (ok, actually the truth is I got some pretty horrible pictures today...but I'm posting them anyway because they still make for good memories even if they aren't the best photographically)...

Here he is being ushered on stage. He's looking a bit reluctant, but he didn't freak out:


Believe it or not, he's actually doing the motions here:



And now came the best part of the day...The St. Hilaire Christmas Celebration. Seriously, we had SUCH a great day. We all (and by all I mean all of the St. Hilaire siblings, their families, and C.J.'s parents) got to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We, of course, ate tons of delicious food, had plentiful play time with the cousins, opened presents, visited and just enjoyed a wonderful day together. Shout out to Sherrie for hosting! She always provides such a wonderfully relaxing atmosphere, great food, and somehow manages to make our time together soooo enjoyable. So, thank you Sherrie! I tried to take a few pictures and pretty much failed. But you know what, we enjoyed the day with the family and that's what matters, right? Nonetheless, here are a couple of pics from the day:

Grant giving Owen a horsey ride:





And here is Baby Eliana making her debut on the blog. She is Brian and Samantha's new little girl, and she is SO stinking sweet! I'm hoping to get a few more pictures of her some time soon when the lighting is better. Until then, you can enjoy her cuteness via these two: