Christmas Comes to Town

After a lot of build-up on the true meaning of Christmas and baited anticipation for Santa's arrival...Christmas came to our home! :)

Presenting:

Our Little Christmas 2012

The festivities commenced on Christmas Eve where we added a couple of new traditions to some our old tried and true ones.

Old: Opening 1 present each on Christmas Eve (usually Jammies)

New: Opening gifts from siblings!  

Our kids are beginning to get to the age where they can purchase meaningful gifts for each other and we didn't want the excitement of those well-thought-out gifts to get over shadowed by other ones.  So we decided to give them their own time to shine. :)

I am SOOO glad we did this...the love they felt from each other was palpable.  My heart just about burst. :)

Morgan made these blankets for her siblings.  She picked out the fabric and did most of the tying.  She worked really hard on these.  We were so proud of her and how much she gave of herself to bless her siblings.  Plus she LOVED doing it!

After this, we had the kids gather around the fireplace on their blankets, while Dad read the real Christmas story in Luke 2 - while the kids placed the appropriate characters in their places.  This is an old tradition.  It ends with Dad bearing his testimony of the miraculous birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  How grateful I am for both of those men, a faithful husband and father, and my personal Redeemer whose birth we celebrate.

Followed by a NEW tradition...singing carols by the piano!

Only 3 actually since Morgan and I could only play a couple. :)  This should be better next year, but it was fun to start it regardless...as soon as I figure out how, I will add the video of the songs to this post. :)

Our songs we sang - Away in a Manger, Silent Night, and Christmas Comes to Town.

We had a very white, snowy Christmas this year, and we ALWAYS track Santa on the doppler. :)

This year however, we added a mini-game night with the older kids to the mix, when the little girls were nestled and snug in their beds.

In addition to the normal prep for Santa...

It was a peaceful, Silent Night, and we woke up to this:

Santa treated us well to say the least.

We spent the rest of the day lounging and playing with our new toys...me included. :)

We also tried out Jake's new snowboard and did some major sledding.  Here's proof. :)

Then more playing...

As night fell, we all sat down to a delicious Christmas feast - catered by Dad. Ham. Twice-baked potatoes. Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce.  And part of Dad's Christmas gift - Trader Joe's Limeade.  Yum, yum, yummy.

To say we feel blessed is a bit of an understatement but that word is just the perfect description.

How grateful I am for this Christmas and the greatest gift of all.  The Son to the us, from our Father in Heaven.  Merry Christmas!