Christmas 2010

This Christmas was a wonderful celebration with lots of highs and I think it was a success despite how tired I was and how simple things were. More then anything this year I felt so much gratitude for the outpouring of love from our family and friends. It seemed at every turn we were blown away at the love and generosity we were shown. It really touched our hearts. Thank you everyone for your thoughtfulness!

Being close to having a baby I felt extra tenderness for Christ's mother Mary. I think of giving birth to my child in those circumstances and I am overwhelmed with love and appreciation for the humble yet significant miracle of her bringing the son of God into the world. I believe the crowning moments of my life have been when I gave birth to my children. The story of Christ's birth is just such a beautiful testament of God's love for man. That was sort of our family theme this year for Christmas. We had the kids memorize the scripture, "For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten son." We had lots of great conversations about the story of his birth and how His life was a sacred gift to us. I love that we got to share that with the kids this year.

So back to our festivities...The kids are in the golden years where Christmas magic is reaching its all time highs and so it was just so much fun to watch them drink in all the celebration and wonderment. I felt badly that I was just so tired and exhausted this season. For the life of me I could not keep up with all the "plans" I had listed out in my brain but I think I was the only one who really noticed what we didn't get to. When I was a child the magic of Christmas was not the gifts or Santa it was that my family all came together. I really missed that this year and I realized that for my children it wont be that way until they are older. I'm also realizing that being the mom on Christmas is a bit more work then I thought. :) Its worth it though to see the kids having their own sort of Christmas magic.

Here are some little highlights we enjoyed this year:

- The school Christmas pageant, seeing Santa and everything
- Driving around Reno to see the hot spots for Christmas lights - Angeli loved this
- Tons of hot cocoa and movies
- Making gingerbread cookies for Santa
- Having our first Elf on a Shelf visit us from the North Pole - this was rather hilarious when Bridger would not except that he was real...he kept insisting that it was just a toy. After a day or two he was won over by the fact that he moved everyday and brought surprises...I guess that was proof that he wasn't just a toy. :) I guess we should have introduced the elf thing when he was younger.
- Having several family dances rocking out to Christmas music
- Writing letters to Santa
- Playing Santa's helpers delivering toys and treats to our friends
- Making and Shipping lots of gifts all over the U.S. ;)
- Having our annul Christmas Eve party: party buffet, acting out the nativity, singing Christmas songs, setting out cookies and stockings, spreading reindeer food outside....
- Waking up very early on Christmas morning to see that Santa's Sleigh had tipped over in our living room
- The kids giving their first sibling gifts to each other
- Feeling really homesick for family
- Having our fancy Christmas night dinner
- And playing and playing and playing with all our new toys!

I am so grateful for Christ life and his birth that we get to celebrate each year. He has given us every joy and for that we try to give back what we can, our lives dedicated to him. I hope this year we are more filled with His light, life, and love.

Decorating Cookies for Santa

Christmas Morning

Christmas playing with our new toys and hanging out

All day they played Star Wars and Barbies together in this weird princess barbie meets aliens sort of game it was so funny to watch.

All in all it was a very Merry Christmas!