~Christmas Happenings~

Christmas was filled with lots of laughs, surprises (not all were good), but surprisingly not a single tear. Christmas Eve was different this year. We decided to do our spiritual traditions at that time instead of on Christmas morning. The kids are always so excited in the morning and don't really listen to the Story of Christ's birth. We have found a new tradition and it includes: Scott reading from Luke:2 and then watching 'Joy to the World' followed by a candle ceremony (a tradition from my childhood.) After all of those things, we opened up.... PAJAMAS. (Who could have guessed that?) So for everyone who knows us, we tend to run a pretty tight chore chart and daily routine. It includes in order: Get up, Get Dressed, fold and put away your pajamas, make your bed (neat and tidy) and comb your hair.
Well on Christmas morning I never expected to have that list followed. I have to say I was disappointed when they all came bounding into our room at 7:00am (that is when we said they could come get us up) they were squeaky clean in fresh clothes, clean face and combed hair. Their beds were made neat and tidy and not a single pair of pajamas was left on the floor. They even got Caiden dressed and cleaned up. I was disappointed because I didn't get a single sleepy face, tousled hair or Christmas morning pajama picture. My disappointment was curtailed when I thought about what amazing and responsible kids we have. We are so blessed!

Candle ceremony- Each person says a personal/spiritual gift that
they would like to give to Jesus throughout the next year.
They then share their light by lighting the the next persons candle. After the ceremony,
Baby Jesus is encircled in our light. It was extremely spiritual on many levels and for many different reasons. We then sang 'Happy Birthday" to Jesus. It is something that I have done with my boys since they were tiny. It was always a tangible way to get the boys to understand what we were celebrating.
(I wouldn't have traded the events that followed this tradition for anything.) I will share them with you if you want to call and ask about them but they are much too precious to put on our blog.

Christmas Eve pajama picture. They all had a blast that night!

Our tree was full of gifts for each child. With 5 kids it gets pretty full.

The kids left out their stocking for Santa to fill.
4 out of 5 still believe in Santa which makes Christmas
that much more fun.

Santa brought new bikes for everyone except for Caiden.
He had a very specific request for each Santa that he met.
He wanted a scooter with a motor... Well we had to tell Santa "NO MOTOR!"
We want our 4 year old to make it to 5.

Caiden was so happy with his scooter
even though it didn't have a motor.

Brendon and Morgan both got awesome digital cameras.
They were psyched that they were real and not toys. Their cameras both take
better pictures than mine now... DANG!

Ashton has been begging for his night vision goggles for a few months.
He has been having a blast with them.

Jensen is into 'Sonic the Hedgehog' toys and video games.
He was happy to have action figures and several Wii games.

Like I said, no tears at all. That was the best part of the whole day.
Each child was gracious and pleased with each thing they received.
We were so blessed to have been able to give our children gifts and I feel
so fortunate and blessed for the memories that were made this year.