Christmas Morning

December 25, 2013

What a fun, joyful and relaxing Christmas we had this year!

During Advent we enjoyed our beloved Jesse tree, using it as a tool to share the gospel of Christ with our children and teach them that 

God loved us so much that he created a son, fully God and fully man, had him birthed in a stable in the most humble of places, and had him live a perfect sinless life on Earth only to die in the worst way possible in order to atone for the sins of the world.

As we approach Christmas each year our children are taught the reality of Jesus' love not the reality of a made-up jolly fellow. They are taught the importance of being gospel-bearers not the importance of earning the favor of a white beard-wearing sleigh pilot. They are taught the essentiality of being listed in the Book of Life not the "nice" list. And they are taught to pursue conducting themselves with Christ-likeness not taught to behave so the elf won't give a bad report to the man in red (as if another fictional character in the equation was necessary).

No offense to those who "do Santa," but we try to keep the focus where it really belongs and we keep Santa in his rightful place as a fictional character that people like to pretend exists for fun. 

So, onto Jesus' birthday celebration......

I was so excited to see the kids' reactions I could hardly stand it.

Andrew was actually the most enthusiastic one. A lot has changed since he was a baby who couldn't even walk or really open his gifts himself last year. 

As expected he made a beeline for his new red soccer ball. 

One of Hudson's favorites was a cool new remote controlled car.

Andrew also got his very own Legos!

I was most excited about Hannah's dollhouse. I played with mine for most of my childhood and I felt like she would do the same, or hoped so. 

It is on casters so that we can move it around easily, and it came with forty-one pieces of wooden furniture. We left most of the furniture in the boxes so that she could unwrap each individual piece. She enjoyed doing just that.

Hannah came up with her own gifts for the boys and gave Andrew a cool new plate. 

Her idea for Hudson was a new cereal bowl with a straw attached. She had great ideas. 

The farm Legos were a huge hit!

I wish I had some pictures of what Hudson and I did the rest of the day, which was build things with his new Legos. 

The age requirements on the boxes were mostly ages 5-12 but he knew exactly what to do. He enjoyed having me help him, but he stayed a few pages ahead of me the entire time. He just has an eye for building things. It was fun to learn from him! I am new to the world of boys Legos. 

I also wish I had a picture of Hannah's gift to us. I was the one opening the gift and Daddy doesn't think to take any pictures, but I had quite a reaction to her sentimental gift. 

Her teacher put her handprint in white paint on a clear ornament and made each finger into a snowman. It almost brought me to tears because just days before, Andrew got a hold of the red ornament I did the exact same thing with when she was 18 months old. It had her little print and little finger snowmen on it (I made one for all of the kids in my toddler Sunday school class at our last church when she was that age). Andrew reached high, pulled it off of the tree and brought it to me......then it rolled right off the table and shattered. I have to say I cried a little. I don't have another print of her at that age. So, when I opened that ornament I got a little emotional as I thanked God for receiving a replacement for that cherished ornament. Though it can not be replaced I felt His goodness in getting another as a surprise just after losing the first. 

After gifts we had sausage balls and sticky buns, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and played all day long.

It was so nice spending the day playing and just enjoying each other, all the while sweetly feeling God's love for us in giving us each other and most of all, His son.