Merry Christmas!

There are those that believe Christmas is for children. That there is a special magic surrounding the holiday that is felt the strongest by the smallest members of our families. I used to believe this as well. Now that I have my own children and they are getting to the age where they are beginning to understand that magic, I have to disagree that Christmas is for children. I have never felt the spirit of Christmas more than I have watching my own little ones fall under its spell.

Jamy and I are so blessed. We have each other and together have created three of the most amazing people I know. Together we have been through so much. I really have come to believe in the last few weeks, though, that we are just now entering one of the best times of our lives. Our children are getting to the age where they are understanding what a special time Christmas is and they are still young enough to believe. Right now as I type this, we are all snuggled in together getting ready for bed and watching a new movie that Santa brought. Our day has been relaxed and laid back so that the kids can really enjoy the day.

We used to do a bunch of running around on the holiday. It was hurry open presents, hurry get in the car, hurry drive two hours to Grandma's house, hurry eat, hurry drive to other Grandma's house, hurry eat, hurry drive to other Grandma's house, try not to puke from all of the hurrying and eating. The kids were stressed by the end. We were stressed by the end and we never felt like we got to spend quality time with any of our families. So last year, because I was ready to pop with Skylar and have a history of very quick labors we decided to stay home for Christmas. It was so great to not have to hurry, hurry, hurry all over. We talked it over and made a very difficult decision. We decided that right now, while our children are young, we need to step back and slow down for the holiday. Our decision was to not go anywhere but our own home for Christmas. I was sad at first because family means so much to me and I really miss getting together with everyone and celebrating. It is weird to not see Mom, Dad, Beth and Matt on Christmas. Now is the time though to make memories for my kids. I don't want those memories to be a blur of running from one place to the next. In the end it worked out great. We were able to get together with my entire family last Saturday and Jamy's family last night. Today we spent unshowered ,in our jammies playing with our new toys, building a snow man, and enjoying each other. AWESOME!!!!

So here are some highlights of our last 24 hours or so. Yippeee.....it is a white Christmas. I don't even know if I remember the last time we had snow on Christmas. What a gift!!! Now what did each one of us do all day. First off Jamy, he spent most of the last 24 watching A Christmas Story over and over while enjoying the new tacky leg nightlight I got him for Christmas. I watched with him on and off, but dang there is only so much a girl can do to support her guy! I played with the kiddos and finally got a chance to sit down and get some software installed on my new computer so that I could share the below pictures with you all.

Now the kiddos. As you can see from the pictures, they must have been good this year! The first couple of pictures are of them leaving treats for Santa. We had to leave cookies and apple juice because Abby was concerned Santa might be a little tired of milk by the time he got to our house. I asked her if she thought he would be full of cookies too. She said, "NOpe, nobody gets full of cookies!" The second picture is of Skylar discovering the cookies left within her reach and diving on it to "share" with Santa!

Next we have Princess Abby's new dresses for playing dress up and Weston's new train complete with train table built by Daddy. Finally, we have Skylar discoving that Santa left a sucker in her stocking. She was a happy baby.

I am trying to load my pictures to share while I type and it isn't working so I am going to post this for now and type more later with even more pictures to share.

I hope you each had a very Merry Christmas. There are still a few hours left so if you haven't done it already, stop for a moment and think about your own life. I hope you find many blessings, lots of joy and a load of Christmas magic!