Christmas!

 

Our Christmas was wonderful!  It really did sort of feel like a celebration all month long, but the last three days were especially festive!

 

On Christmas Eve Eve we spent the morning celebrating Christmas with my parents over Skype (though I forgot to take pictures)- it just one of those times when I am so thankful for modern technology!  And the rest of the day we spent really focusing on Christ and throwing Him a special birthday party.

 

This year our birthday present to Jesus was pretty special to us.  We decided to sponsor a little girl named Jenifer in Peru.  We'll share lots more about her soon!  After we picked out Jesus' present Lily and I decorated the kitchen for a special birthday dinner and we ate by the light of candles and twinkling lights!

 

And of course there had to be birthday cake!

 

We started with a dark chocolate cake and talked about how on our own our hearts are dark and sinful.  And then we poured white chocolate over the cake and talked about how the love and forgiveness of Jesus has poured over our lives and has made our hearts clean and whole.

 

And after the party and after Eli was in bed Joe, Lily, and I stayed up and read, "An Angel Story" by Max Lucado...all about the birth of Christ from a heavenly perspective (and Lily made it through the whole book for the first time)!

 

And Christmas Eve was also really fun with many of our favroite traditions... throwing out food for the reindeer, delicious appetizer foods for diner, Christmas Eve service at church (my favoite), discovering Santa's sack when we retruned from church (full of new pajamas)...

 

And then Joe and I got to play Santa (also one of my favorite parts of Christmas)!

 

We cleaned and made everything feel magical and got the special gifts ready...

 

Including this fantastic sensory table that Joe built for the kids...

 

And this amazing teepee that my mom,Joe, and I made for them!

 

And I just LOVE Christmas Eve when everything is out and glowing!

 

And I completed our Christmas tree with our homemade family ornament for the year...to remember our special little girl.

 

And then Christmas morning came and Joe actually had to wake Lily up (apparently our two previous days of celebrating wore her out)!:)

 

But soon their faces lit up when they saw the teepee!

And Strawberry Shortcake Dolls and puzzles from Santa!

And they LOVED the sensory table and played with it for quite a while that morning!

And we finally got around to stockings...

And yes, those are toothbrushes that Lily is hugging with glee (my kids have a real love for brushing their teeth)!:)

And Joe bought each of the kids their own log cabin kit (made in the USA- which we love).

And Lily's big individual gift from us was a CAMERA!  You better believe I was pretty excited when she asked for this earlier in the season.  Oh how fun to have another photographer in the family!

And Eli's big individual gift was this basketball hoop and it was a huge hit with our little sports lover!

And after all of the stockings and gifts were opened and we enjoyed some delicious scones and fruit we cleaned up and got ready and PLAYED! 

And although I don't have any pictures to show it we spent the rest of Christmas down with Joe's family just enjoying some great food and being together and a few fantastic presents and throwing parachute men off of the loft stairs.  It really was a wonderful Christmas.  And I am oh so thankful that the stomach flu waited until just after dessert on Christmas evening to strike me down.  While I was too sick to enjoy the Packer game that evening I felt great for all of the most important parts of Christmas.  Happy Birthday Jesus- we had a wonderful time celebrating your birth!