Our Christmas story

It's always hard for me being away from family for Christmas. But luckily I have inherited a great family to spend time with. And as I focus on the true meaning of Christmas it puts into perspective how truly blessed I am. I am so thankful to have a family and a wonderful one at that. I'm thankful to have a Savior and to celebrate the miracle of his birth. This Christmas season we've been trying to introduce our kids to the spirit in this holiday which does include the commercial aspects as well as the spiritual....We got our lights done this year. I think they look beautiful. You can't tell but the lights on the roof line are red and white. I've always wanted a house with those colors.

And according to tradition we went out and picked a real tree. I hope I can keep this tradition going, but it's not Dave's favorite...so we'll see.
This was the first year we stayed home for Christmas. We usually spend the night at Dave's parents but now that we're all married with kids, it's a little different. We got to introduce family traditions, that I hope will carry through the years. We started the evening by reading the Christmas story in Luke. And explaining it in simple terms for Aubree. Then we opened our one present, that is always pajamas and an ornament representing the last year. Aubree got new Shrek jammies with Shrek the Third, and wouldn't you know it, a Shrek ornament. Sophie got soft ballerina jammies with the Willow Tree "Holy Family" ornament. Then we made peanut butter cookies for Santa. I hear their his favorite :) Aubree picked where we should leave them for him, and she decided that on the floor of the fireplace was it.

My sister Carlee, and her fiance Eric came over to exchange gifts. We got a delicious gift card to In-N-Out and the movie "Up". I was very excited because I hadn't seen it yet. We put the kids to bed and then watched the movie, while "preparing" for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning came and we were both up before the kids. We decided to wake Aubree up around 8:00. She was pretty groggy. But cute. We decided to let Sophie sleep in since she wouldn't the know the difference, and started without her. We have some great video of Aubs coming down the stairs and seeing the presents, opening one and sifting through her stocking. But for some reason I can't get it to post..

Santa was good to her this year. She got LOTS and LOTS of squishies! Including lizards, frogs, various other animals and princesses. Sophie didn't really care about presents, but she loved playing with all the boxes and paper. Aubree had a hard time opening all her presents. In fact we had to bribe her to keep opening them! Once she did she was very excited, but I think she was tired and overwhelmed.

Dave got me a fabulous present. An Iphone. And I LOVE it. Dave got Guitar Hero 5 with two guitar controllers...(and ended up buying the mic and drums with money from my Mom, so he has the whole band..)

After we got ready, we headed over to his parents for Christmas dinner and gift exchanges. I made his sister a really cute decoration but I didn't take a pic' of it...the gift exchange was fun. I got a beautiful neckless from Michelle, money, and the girls were spoiled! We put them down for naps and had fun with our new "toys". From then until now I've been addicted to my phone. It's only now that I've been able to put it down for a minuet and catch up on blogging! We had a really fun Christmas, and I talked to my family so it wasn't totally without. It's a fun phase to now feel the spirit of Christmas through the wonder and joy of my kids. I love having another reason to celebrate my Savior and spend time with family. It's been a great month.