Christmas Morning

Well, after a good explanation about why our tree needs to come down soon (dried up, brittle, curling branches, you know - may go up in flames at any moment), I think the boys were able to go to sleep last night. They are sad that Christmas is over. I told Ivan, "Well, isn't it great that it comes every year? We can celebrate Jesus' birthday again next year!" He said, "Tomorrow?!!!" I said, "No, next year." pause... "How many days is that?" I replied, "365, honey." Ivan's reply was a surrendering, "UGH," as he fell back onto his bed. I remember feeling the let down of Christmas festivities coming to an end as a kid. I still feel it. Although... I am looking forward to having the holiday pace slow down and get my house back in order!

Here is a glimpse of our Christmas morning. It was very casual with no family in town. I even got out of making anything close to resembling Christmas dinner this year. That was nice... although I really do enjoy a big meal with lots of family and noise. : ) Hopefully next year...We had set a pair of Spider man slippers in the boys' room for them to wake up to. When they finally noticed, Grant exclaimed, "Santa was in HERE too! WOW!" As they were slipping them onto their feet, Grant looked up and said very seriously, "...I love Jesus too, Mom." Thanks for the reassurance, buddy.Mary slept through the stocking opening, but joined us later on. : )After the stockings had been rummaged through, we sat down for a snowman breakfast. After breakfast, we all sat on the couch and read the Christmas Story out of my old Children's Bible. We explained that we exchange gifts to celebrate God's gift to us - Jesus. We took a different approach to the gifts this year and scaled down. Each kid only got three gifts from us. However, as you can see in the first picture... they made out pretty well, thanks to all of their grandparents, aunts and uncles!
We all love our new towels, Nana Carole! Games, games, games. This was the year for games! Here's Mary with her new American Girl, "Bitty Baby" doll. Thanks, Grandma!
I love my new baby!Uncle Dave, we might have another coffee drinker in the family!A BUZZ SHOOTER! (Buzz Lightyear - Grant is still a loyal fan)Ivan has been collecting the Playmobile Pirate sets. We've begun the knights collection for Grant - they will sit for hours, QUIETLY, and play together with these! It's so nice that they are both getting to ages where they can play creatively together. Mary's favorite present this year was her "Little People" airplane. She pushes it all over the place, and will bring it to me so I can push the little person and make it play music. Then she stands and dances until it stops! After gifts were all done and the chaos subsided, we had a birthday party.
I like how a friend of mine said it the other day... "We celebrate Jesus 365 days a year in our home. I think there's a little bit of room to have fun with Santa on Christmas." I agree. We love to get into the Santa Claus traditions, but really try to embed the main act of this important holiday into our children's hearts. The birth of Jesus Christ. He's what's real. He's the reason for this wonderful season! The fact that my kids love to celebrate Him too, is music to my ears.