We had the best time celebrating Christmas with our little family. Our kids are at such FUN ages! For one, it was Kyndall's first Christmas! And our other kids found the idea of Santa coming SO exciting! Plus, they are big enough now to remember and want to participate in some of our Christmas traditions. We didn't get to bed as early as we had planned, but we just couldn't leave anything undone!
We started off with our annual Christmas spaghetti dinner complete with our glass bottle cokes! Spaghetti is original to us (weird, maybe, but our kids eat it without a fuss!), and the cokes are a passed on tradition from Murray's family. The kids had a blast saying "cheers" with their bottles!
Next came the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. The big kids had shopped for everyone at Dollar Tree, and it was awesome seeing how thoughtful they were with their selections. They really knew what would make people happy, and they were so excited to give what they had picked.
They picked out bubbles for Hayes.
Cole got some new books from Hayes. The first 4 books in The Boxcar Children series.
They picked out a pink piggy bank and purple blanket for Kyndall.
Cole found a sparkly, pink, unicorn for Jordan... I think her reaction said it all!
Next up, we got on our Christmas pajamas and snuggled up for a Christmas movie! They picked "The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About Christmas."
After the movie was over, we read one of Hayes' favorite Christmas books about the birth of Jesus, and Cole and Jordan told the story for us all with our nativity set. They had practiced for several days, and they did an excellent job remembering so many details.
And last but not least, we got ready for Santa... milk, cookies, notes, carrots, and reindeer food. They thought of it all!
And boy did Santa deliver! There were stockings full and fun presents to play with when everyone woke up Christmas morning!
Santa obviously loved the milk and cookies that they left. He even answered all their questions, and he left them a pretty special note thanking them for being such sweet kids all year long! And Jordan was pretty excited when she checked to see if the reindeer had enjoyed their carrots!
They all came down, found their toys, and immediately started playing with all of them. It was awesome. Somehow Santa knew exactly what they would love! Cole had even been upset on Christmas Eve because he told me that hadn't told anyone that he had really been hoping for some marbles from Santa. Good old Santa somehow, luckily, read his mind because, low and behold, there were MARBLES! A true Christmas miracle!
Murray and I got to open some presents that the kids made for us at school and some that they had chosen at Dollar Tree. We hit the jackpot!
And for the final surprise, Murray and I showed the kids what their present from us was... a new playground for the backyard!
The fun continued as the kids played with their stuff. They had a big time watching their Little Live Turtles swim around, and, before you knew it, they were all in there swimming with them!
Christmas is awesome. We love having time together, doing fun traditions, and giving/receiving presents. Christmas is also tough. It's hard to keep from becoming selfish and focused on our lists of wants. One thing that we did this year to try to remember what is really important was this little manger. For every act of kindness and service that the kids did, they got to put one piece of hay in the manger. They came up with all kinds of ways to serve- from giving someone else a turn, to throwing away dirty diapers, or helping a friend tie his shoes at school. Cole, Jordan, and Hayes all found ways to think about others instead of themselves and to give gifts of love like Jesus did. They added the last pieces of hay on Christmas Eve for leading our family in our devotional time. They were SO excited Christmas morning to see that Baby Jesus was in the manger.
We definitely don't get it right all the time, and our kids ended up with WAY more presents and toys than they needed. But isn't that why Jesus truly is the greatest gift of all? No matter how many times we mess up and fall short, because he came to earth, lived, died, and rose again, we are made perfect in God's eyes if we believe and follow him. Thank God for such a a perfect gift!
