Christmas Time Fun

I truly can't believe Christmas is already over! It is my favorite time of the year by far. This year we continued traditions, started some new ones, spent time with family and missed loved ones who are afar. It was also a bittersweet season for us as a few of our dearly loved family members are ill. We started the season off by decorating the day after thanksgiving as we have in the past. It's my favorite day! I have two favorite traditions at Christmas time. One of my favorite tradition we do throughout the month of December is the Jesse Tree. Adding a different ornament to our Jesse Tree and reading a small of part of the true christmas story each day. My second favorite is the live nativity we participate in with our Chruch. Our church has created an amazing live nativity that people come through. There are twelve or so scenes requiring 200 people to make it all run. Last year 20,000 people went through. What an awesome way to share the true meaning of Christmas and teach my children to give of their time, energy and heart! We love it. Last year we did one night, this year we did two nights. I hope to continue this trend as long as it is running. Jake participated with us in the scenes and had so much fun. We also went through on another night so the boys could see it in full. 

I also love a new tradition we started which was a stack of twenty five books that were wrapped. Each night, the boys took turns opening them and we got to read a new story each night. As we got closer to Christmas... they became more focused on Christmas, ending with,"The night before Christmas." 

Christmas Eve was extra special for me this year as our Pastor asked me to read the Christmas story at one of the services. I was truly honored and a little nervous. I was excited for my children to be able to see me read it and continue to show them the reason for the season. Having some family there to watch me, helped my nerves a bit too. It was a lot of fun and the children were great. We also saw Mommel as well as Poppel and sally. Sally made us an Arizona Christmas Eve which was soo tasty!

Christmas morning is always fun with kids. We wrap the hallways with wrapping paper and the boys bust through it. Santa came and the boys were thrilled with their presents. I'm always grateful to see their hearts when they open presents. Will and Kev just love everything. They were excited and happy to play with everything right away. Jake was amazing and as always so animated and excited. His maturity was so cool to see. He said things like,"thank you so much for getting this for me!" Very cool. 

After we opened our gifts, we went down to Balitmore for the day and spent time with my side of the family. The boys had so much fun, Pop Pop and Gigi spoiled them and we had a nice family dinner together. We missed Nikki and Eko and the boys who spent christmas in Turkey this year. We also missed Thomas, Abby and Edie who spent Christmas in Altanta. Although thanks to FaceTime, we got to see everyone! The day after Christmas we visited Rick, Janet and Kim. We had dinner together and exchanged gifts. It was important for us to spend time with Kimmy and we feel lucky to be so close with her. I love that my boys have so many people whom they love. 

We also feel blessed to have found such an awesome church family. This is a picture from our community group's Christmas brunch. They have truly become such important people to us.