Just as Christmas break was starting we got a ton of snow so we just settled into our warm home to play some games and cook like crazy and of course play in the snow with dad. 
It was so nice to be so mellow and the kids are old enough now to actually be a ton of help, thank goodness because Avery causes enough trouble on her own to make me lose it! 
We spent Christmas Eve at home with some friends. We had a nice dinner with prime rib and lots of goodies.
The kids decorated sugar cookies after dinner while the grown ups visited.
After our guests went home we read the nativity story from the scriptures while the kids dressed up and acted out the scenes. Avery was our onery little angel while Mary and Joseph had a little tiff in the stable about where baby Jesus would sleep.
Then we mixed up some reindeer food to put out for Santa's crew, and laid out the sugar cookies for the big guy himself.
The kids slept in until their regular time of 7:00 the next morning. Al and I on the other hand were up and anxiously waiting since 5:30! Lazy bums!
Abby finally woke up at 7:00 and asked if she could get Caleb up and Caleb didn't want to get up! He finally realized what he was saying and jumped up to run downstairs. They were thrilled
Abby was so happy about Caleb's present to her. He found this little playset that is like Polly Pockets but you can plant seeds around it and watch them grow. She loved it and Caleb was so proud of himself. He picked it out all by himself.
Avery loved Abby's scooter and we can't hardly keep her away from it. She thinks she's pretty big stuff.
We have spent the days at home playing lots of games and watching movies. Avery loves throwing the cards in the air and making everyone mad so we try to make sure she is in bed before we start anything.
Abby took it upon herself to be the score keeper. She got sick of correcting her mother and decided she was better off to do it herself. She's pretty good at it (better than I am sadly) and it's good practice with math for her.
Caleb loves to play the shooter game on the wii with his dad. He's is such boy. I had to snap a picture of him so into his game.
We've all joined in on the fun rocking out on rock band. Abby has found she is best at singing, but we need to find more wholesome songs. Not many came with it, surprise. Caleb loves the drums and Al is getting the hang of the guitar.
I think this was definately the best Christmas we have had so far. The stress levels were way down and the kids were so thrilled about everything it made it tons of fun. A few years ago we started "adopting" a family for Christmas. The kids help pick the family and keep it a secret as well as pick out the presents. When we first started doing this we didn't do much, because we didn't have much ourselves but we would do something small. This has become our favorite part of Christmas by far- even the kids prefer this activity over everything else which thrills me and Al. This all started a few years ago when we really had next to nothing and our Christmas budget was about $40 for our family. We were both going to school and working trying to stay out of debt and have a family at the same time and felt like we were barely keeping our heads above water. That year we had people leave money and presents on the doorstep and Allen's grandpa sent us a big chunk of money in the mail. We were so touched by the love and swore from then on we would share a little of what we had with others even less fortunate than us thinking it was a sacrifice we would make to pay it forward, but it has been such a blessing to our family to experience this together and is actually a lot of fun. We are happy to have this time of year to focus on family and what really matters in life. I wish we were better about doing stuff like this all year long, but we tend to get so caught up in our own lives it doesn't happen. Christmas is a great time to be proactive about it. We have so much to be greatful for and hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas!
3 comments:
Looks like you had such a great Christmas. I loved reading about your family tradition of giving to others.
I hope that this new year of 2009 will be one of lots of blessings and memories!
How fun! I love Christmas day so much. I cannot believe that unreal amount of snow. I can't even remember what that was like. We never risk driving north to see family in winter so we usually only return to Idaho in the summertime. Our two youngest daughters have never even seen snow. A couple of kids were looking over my shoulder at the pic of Caleb on that huge snow mound in complete awe. I love the whole Avery attitude. We have someone like that in our house called Meisha. Fun times!
How fun, I love all of your Christmas pics. I've been watching the news and can't believe how much snow has fallen up north. We got some the week of christmas, then it all melted. Today we're getting another storm, I'm glad to have some snow again, it just makes winter more fun when you can go outside and play!
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