Ordinary days after Christmas

Love these pictures of the kids being happy in the days following Christmas.  So cute!  Love them!

Christmas 2011

Christmas was wonderful. So grateful for the birth of the Savior, and for the many blessings we have because of Him.  We changed our gift tradition this year - we used to do the 3 presents per child, but every year, by the time our kids got presents from their grandparents and Santa, and each other, it seemed that they still ended up with way too much.  By too much I mean that a week later, some gift is forgotten or they have lost interest in the gift.  Not that getting a lot of presents is bad - who doesn't love to receive lots of presents?

We are not being Grinches by any means, we love to give our kids anything that they ask for -- it's also just that we don't want them to grow up thinking they can have anything and everything at Christmas if they wished for it, and feeling entitled.  We want them to appreciate every gift they get - and to love and enjoy them a lot. But more importantly, to understand that Christmas is more about giving than receiving.  So this year, instead of 3 presents, they got 1 present from us.  Because they knew that months before, they only told us the 1 thing they wanted the most, and the other things on their very short wish list - Santa happily brought.  I second guessed our decision - thinking and worried that maybe we didn't do enough for the kids.

But you know what?  The kids didn't mind at all.  There were no comments of "this is all I got?" or faces that said "oh man I didn't get a lot".  What we saw instead were faces of gratefulness and faces filled with Christmas wonder and magic.  Happy faces, even though they didn't have a big pile of gifts this year.  We participated in two secret Santa projects the week before Christmas, which made a big difference (at least I'd like to think) in the way they thought of presents and gifts - I know it did for Kevin and I.  Later that day, Collin told me how he loved this Christmas even more so than last year, he didn't know why, even though he opened fewer presents.  He played all day with his Legos from Santa and read books and played games on his new Kindle Fire.  Allie was just in heaven with her iPod touch, which she was proud to pay half the cost (when our kids want something expensive, they pay for half).  Allie got a few new sets of Church clothes from her Grandma Beth and Pappi, so she was excited!  They were super cute and her stylish Aunt Andrea helped picked them out.

So the kids woke up at 2 a.m. but their Aunt Andrea who was sleeping in the guest room (adjacent to the family room) told them it was way too early to wake up to open their stockings.  I of course was the main excuse - that I would want to watch and take videos and photos, so they probably ought to wait until it was a bit later.  They agreed and went back to bed.  They were up at 6, still super dark outside, and asked my sleepy head if they could go ahead and look in their stockings and Santa presents.  Kevin and I went downstairs a little after that to watch them. 

Opening Santa presents - Santa actually wrapped his presents since the kids used the Santa bags as blankets!

Maddie asked Santa to bring her "just one thing" - a pet unicorn.  Santa was very creative and got her a pillowpet unicorn.

Belle pajamas from Aunt Andrea

 Collin's beloved soft blanket (his old one was so loved and tattered)

Santa brought Zane this ball - which is all he really needed.  He was so excited.  Oh the simple joys of baby!

Allie worked hard to pay for half of the iPod touch - she babysat, did chores and handwrote 20 scholarship thank you letters for the BYU Alumni Association. 

 

Of course she spent the day texting and setting up her new thing.

Maddie's jeep was a hit with Zane.  And has been played with every day since we got it.

My sister Abby sent us presents in the mail - so thoughtful.  Andrea in our matching pajamas.

Me and Kevin with our small gifts from my sisters

Zane loves his new ride-on

After we opened presents, we enjoyed wheat pancakes (yum!), hash browns, sausage and eggs for breakfast, then got ready for church.  Kevin's parents came and brought their presents to us - 2-day hopper passes to Disneyland!  The kids were so excited to get those, and look forward to going with their grandparents this coming year. We went to our Church meeting at 12 noon (such a perfect time!) and had such a great and wonderful time being uplifted by song and testimonies.  It was nice to come home after that and enjoy the rest of the day with family!  On our way home I decided to go and take pictures of the kids in their Sunday best.  Of course since my Baby 365 project was over, I forgot to take Zane's photo.  We forgot to take a photo in front of our Christmas tree, and I knew that photos were going to be out of the picture when the kids got out of their clothes. We hosted Christmas dinner at home and enjoyed the company of family and friends.I love Christmas!

Our family, Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Eve.  With my sister in town, I actually braved shopping on Christmas Eve to get some last minute gifts - which turned out to be awesome because we were out at 10 a.m. when the Santan Mall was barely awake, and done by 1 p.m. when all the shopping madness began.  Kevin and I went to get some last minute things after that and then the gift wrapping began.  I had all my online purchases in boxes still - so it was fun unboxing all of them that day.
Reminiscing
I kept thinking how different this Christmas Eve was from last year - I had just come home from the hospital with a newborn baby, and I remember feeling overwhelmed by Christmas Eve, and feeling grateful that though I was still pretty much out of it, Kevin and I were able to pull off that Christmas, and appreciated the quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with just our little family and our new little baby.  It made me think a lot of Mary and how she must have felt just having a baby.

Christmas Eve Traditions
The kids opened their first Christmas present - new pajamas!  My kids love Christmas pajamas so this is one of those Christmas eve traditions we like to keep.  After tucking Zane in bed for the night, Andrea and I wrapped presents - Kevin and the kids watched a Christmas movie, though they kept knocking on the guest room door and wanting to peek and help.  We also had a lot of fun memories putting a jeep together - that took us only an hour and a half.  But lots of laughs along the way.  The kids also rearranged the furniture in the family room to resemble a really LONG bed.  They were ready to go to bed and sleep by our Christmas tree.

Maddie had very sticky hair on Christmas Eve - she got a hold of some good spray wax.  Her hair had to be washed 10 times, with dish soap even, and it was still sticky.

Opening pajamas

See Maddie's hair - it is sticky as can be.

Explaining Santa

We had an almost unbeliever this year; This one needed more than just a brush off so this is how I did it: I explained the whole magical story of Santa and how the Santa spirit is alive because of all the millions of people who make it happen - I mean if you think about all the gifts and stockings being filled all over the world - you have to admit it is a pretty amazing thing; Santa is a symbol of Christmas, and the Santa spirit is real.  But without those people/helpers/"elves", the magic of Santa is gone.  However, that said, the TRUE Spirit of Christmas - which is Christ, is REAL.  He lives, and unlike the Santa spirit, He is always there and is not dependent on any helper - He is as real as real can get.  I left it up for her to decide what she thought of Santa.  I kept asking her if she still believed because Santa only exists for the believers!  She was still super giddy about where Santa was in the world, and was super excited about opening presents - so the Santa spirit lives on - though she may upgrade to a helper elf next Christmas.
24 Days
We ended Christmas Eve with our last 24 Days of Christmas devotional - and hung the last ornament on the tree.  We read Luke 2 and watched the birth of Christ videos shown at the First Presidency Christmas devotional.  How grateful I am for the spirit that comes from learning about Christ - just not at Christmas, of course, but especially at this time of year.  They all zonked out after that - what a perfect ending to an eventful day!  Our house was quiet as a mouse by 12:30 a.m., it was unreal we got done that fast.  The kids are sound sleepers - I got a few photos of them sleeping by the tree, and they had no idea I was even there!  These are by far my most favorite Christmas pictures of all time:

Collin fell asleep watching the Christmas lights.

Maddie and Alli left Santa cookies and milk, and vowed to stay awake all night. Ten minutes later, they were out!

Collin's view.  Oh the magic of Christmas!

Our tree before we all went to bed on Christmas Eve.  

I love it when the only light comes from the Christmas tree.

How symbolic is that.

Week's Happenings 12/11-12/19

The holidays, beginning in November, really, is a super busy month - and this year for me was more busy than I had planned.  It seemed like I was on the run all the time.  When the week of the 11th came, I was ready to slow down and take in and enjoy the spirit of the season.  Thank goodness for our daily Christmas devotionals that started on November 30th -- or I couldn't really get into any sort of "break" or "vacation" or "fun" mode.   I looked forward to stopping for a few minutes every night to sit down and sing songs with my family and learn about the Savior.  That made a huge difference in how I felt about the whole busyness of the Christmas season.

Collin wanted me to take a photo of Zane's "3 legs".  He always manages to get his leg out of these footsies.

An attempt to take 1-year old photos -- not super successful, these were the best I got.

 
Preschool parties on two separate days with these little cuties.  It was so fun minus the throw-up incident we had on Friday.

Zane liked checking out (and pulling off) the ornaments on our devotional tree.

Collin rediscovered one of Allie's old toys - a play laptop.  We put new batteries in, shined it up, and voila - a new toy (and not even Christmas yet).  Zane loves to look over anything electronic.

Alli (check out the new spelling) and I baked some cookies on Saturday morning to take to her baking/cookie party.

 

Maddie did a bunch of chores this day (Saturday) - vacuumed the floors and mopped the wood floors.  She did awesome!

Allie had a half-birthday.  Kevin got her flowers, her favorite ice cream, and favorite dinner (Costa Vida).  Then watched The Smurfs before bed.

 

Made all these ornaments with the preschoolers on Tuesday and Friday -- and since Zane was awake and wanted to check out preschool, he made one with us too.

 I went and ate lunch with Collin (and his buddies) - it was fun to listen to the conversations these three had at lunch. Collin was in such deep conversation he and Cameron didn't hear my request for a photo - but Ethan was more than happy to oblige.

That's better.

That was life for me this week.  I took a total of 250 pictures this week (not including the should-have taken's, e.g., Zane swishing his arms in the toilet for the umpteenth time. gross.) Taking pictures of life's ordinary moments helps me find joy in every day motherhood.   It was a great busy week, I was glad for it to be over - and finally get to relax and think about the Christmas festivities!!