The BEST Christmas EVER!

Christmas this year was SO much fun with the kids!  Mainly because all the kids are at really fun ages this year & because our celebrations were a little more spaced out this year (only ONE place to go or visit per day!  Quite a breakthrough for us!).  We also had saved up a little extra money this year towards Christmas, so we finally felt like we were able to buy some funner presents for the kids, which is always exciting as a parent!

MY favorite Christmas present this year was some new couches that we got ON CHRISTMAS EVE!  I had actually ordered them on "Black Friday", but they got them in in the wrong color & had to re-order them, so luckily we were at least able to get them by the day before Christmas!

The first thing we did when the kids woke up on Christmas morning was to open up our present to Jesus, that we've been working on all month.  We've had this "Sparkle Box" sitting up on the piano all month & any time any of us have done something nice for someone else, we would write it on a paper & put it in the Box as a present for Jesus.  We figure that since we're celebrating the Birth of Christ, then our focus should be more on what we're giving HIM for Christmas, not just US.  And since we can't actually wrap Him up a present to open, we figured that us serving others is the present that He would probably like us giving Him the most!  So one-by-one, we each took out a paper & read out loud what someone else had done nicely for someone else.  The kids just lit up every time we read something that THEY had done (things like making someone else's bed, or cleaning up someone else's toys, or taking someone cookies, or shoveling someone's driveway, or drawing someone a picture, or Skyler even scraped off the snow of our neighbor's car for her a couple of times!).  Laron & I tried serving in BIGGER ways, but it was nice for the kids to see that even little kids like THEM could serve others.  What a perfect spirit to start off our Christmas morning with!  I think we're going to start making this a yearly tradition...  And then of course that morning we finished up reading the rest of the Christmas story in the Bible, since we'd gotten to bed too late the night before to read it then.

Laron had made us a nice home-cooked breakfast, but the kids were antsy to start opening presents, so we let everyone open up ONE present & then we went and had a yummy breakfast as a family, which was a special treat.  And then off to the present-opening & present-playing!  I loved that we weren't RUSHED this year to be anywhere too early, so the kids were actually able to open a toy & immediantly PLAY with their toy.  Then they'd open another toy & play with THAT one.  These are the BEST mornings to be a parent to small children!  Their reactions & squeals of delight are sure PRICELESS!

 Kimberly wore this little princess dress ALL day!  What a cutie!

At lunchtime we headed over to my parent's house to talk to my brother Tim who's currently serving a mission in Concepcion, Chile right now & only gets to call home twice a year.  After a quick lunch, the kids were anxious to start opening presents from Grandma & Papa...

The day AFTER Christmas is when MY extended family does our annual "Progressive Dinner," driving from house to house, eating & playing games & visiting with family.  That's always a fun day!  Then that night, all the Grandkids (except Bailey) had a sleepover at Grandma & Papa's house.  We were sure glad that we kept Bailey home with us that night, because she happened to throw up in the middle of the night!  My parents were pretty thankful too!  Over the next week, ALL of our kids one-by-one got the flu, and although that's always no fun, I was SO thankful that at least they weren't sick for most of our Christmas parties & celebrations!

The Sunday BEFORE Christmas is when we went & visited Laron's family.  His family gave each of us a box of "health food" that they tried educating us on, which was kinda fun & different & extremely useful!  Nice to get something we can actually USE, instead of some decoration that we feel obligated to STORE, whether we like it or not.  And then Grandma Liz made each of the grandkids a tied fleece blanket, which they've all LOVED!  One of the MOST unusual things about our get-together this year, was singing around the piano as a family, which is something I don't EVER remember doing with the Pace's.  I got brave & started us off with a Michael McLean song that has personal meaning to the family, "We can be together forever someday..." & then everyone begged Laron's Dad into playing Christmas songs on the piano after that (I didn't even know he PLAYED the piano!) & we all sang together.  What a spirit of Christmas THAT brought to the party as well!

And then we got together with Laron's Mom the week AFTER Christmas, after all the kids were feeling better.  Kinda fun to have the celebrations drawn out over more than a week's period of time though!  Better than all crammed into ONE day like we used to try to do...  Well, "Merry Christmas" everyone!  Let's make some more memories NEXT year!