Christmas 2012

Though it may be ever so slightly belated, I hope that everyone had a wonderfully blessed and Merry Christmas this year! I know that we sure did. Very often, I'm approached these days by total strangers while holding Evie. Many of them say the same thing. "Looks like someone got their Christmas present early this year!" I always smile and agree with them wholeheartedly. She was by far my greatest gift this season. Ah, heck! All three of my children are my greatest gifts every year! Cliche, right? I know. But I'm okay with that.


This year, Christmas seemed to peak for the kids as far as the magical level goes. They were super excited about Santa Claus and I enjoyed the whole thing myself. Each year I do something that helps with the magic. One year I had a couple of jingle bells that "fell off Santa's coat" while eating the cookies we left. Last year I went out and left reindeer "hoofprints" in our yard from when they ate their reindeer food that Alex got from preschool. This year, Abby got reindeer food from preschool and I went one step crazier. Brace yourself. This is pretty crazy. I "borrowed" some horse poop from my mom and when the kids went to bed, I strategically placed the poop about a reindeer butt's length from the pile of food. When the kids got up the next morning, they promptly put on their coats and boots and ran out to the yard to see if the food was gone. Needless to say, they came running back in the house yelling, "The reindeer pooped in our yard!" It made me chuckle. Can you tell I have too much fun with this? Josh rolled his eyes at me. I just grinned like a dummy.

Posin' with the reindeer poop. Priceless!

Each year, before the kids get to open presents we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and we talk about what the reason for celebrating Christmas is. Each year, the kids seem to understand a little more and that warms my heart. They both enjoy praying together and with me and love having their Bibles read to them. This year, they each got special Bibles of their own that are geared toward kids. Alex's is set up like a really well done comic book and Abby's is a princess-like one with really great art work.

Santa brought them beanbag chairs and new blankets with new books to read and a new stuffed friend to cuddle with (Alex was Avengers stuffed toys and Abby's was a new mouse and bunny). Though I'm not sure Santa was taking into consideration the small, ever shrinking size of our teeny tiny house. What was he thinking bringing two giant stuffed pillows into our house?? But THEN my wonderfully thoughtful brother, Aaron, decided that sending each kid a mammoth sized build-able cardboard monstrosity was a good idea. Now my house has decreased in size by half. Thanks Uncle Aaron. Sheesh. Seriously though...they were awesome presents and the kids love them. I'm just not sure I'll ever be able to get rid of them. They were also, thanks to the combined efforts of Josh's folks and us, given Kindle Fires. I was extremely hesitant about this and am still unsure if it was a wise choice, but they seem to really enjoy them (on limited use of course). We'll see how insane they get with them. Josh loved the idea of course, but he has one of his own and I believe that he just wanted to stop sharing his own. :-)

Kids with their new Kindle Fires. Good idea or bad idea?

A forced hug for Christmas. Tis the season!

Yep...gonna have to smack my brother for these gifts.

Where is my floor?? Where is my living room???

Presents at my folks' house.

Abby giving Evie her new stuffed animals. (Abby was jealous of the horse.)

Evie and her first cow from mama. I did this with the first two kids too.

Christmas Eve. They get to open one present on this night and they chose to open their gifts from each other.

Evie with her loot. she slept most of the morning away.

Josh and his new Avengers shirt from Alex. Abby gave him a batman one.

And because it's so rare to get a picture with my mom smiling, here she is with her granddaughter.

It was a wonderful Christmas and I must admit that Josh actually working for the past few months made it much nicer. Here's hoping that you all had a wonderful time as well and from our house to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!