Merry, meaningful, and memorable...

That pretty much sums up our Christmas this year, but you know I can't leave it at that, so here's the rundown:

Our holiday gatherings began on Sunday afternoon (23rd), but first we spent the morning at Church. Next year I'm bound and determined that we'll get our behinds to church for either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We continue the long-standing tradition in Brian's family of reading the Christmas story and singing carols before we open gifts on Christmas Eve, but it feels like something is missing when we aren't worshiping with our church family as well.


The source of Sam and Julia's three day sugar high. (and mine too for that matter!)

Sunday afternoon we visited with family, ate, played Taboo, ate, watched the kids being silly, ate, and then braved the blizzard like conditions to get to Grandma and Grandpa's house for gift opening. The wind rattled windows, swirled into drifts, and made the snow fall sideways. That blessed wind kept Brian from having to work - no point in plowing snow that is going to blow right back where it was! Thank you Lord!


Sam helped Sharon hand out gifts. There were so many! Brian's family is very generous and gives us wonderful presents.

























Apparently, being spoiled is hard work, but before we could go home for the night the kids had one more gift to "open".



Without further ado, I'd like to introduce the two newest members of our family - Mary and Joseph.
















That was a looooong car ride home trying to keep the fish from being evicted from their home.

What I think I'll remember most from the morning of Christmas Eve this year is the fact that Sam didn't want to come downstairs to open gifts because Curious George wasn't over yet. Then when he did come downstairs, he wanted to eat first. I guess my attempt at making Christmas about more than gifts worked. Now I just need to work on his love of TV. :) Both kids loved ripping the wrapping paper and discovering the treasure inside, though the tool set and stroller from the night before were more interesting than the plate I made for Julia and Sam's new markers. Sam did get pretty excited about giving Daddy the ornaments he and Julia made
for him.


See what Brian got me? I finally have a grown-up coat! No more Columbia jacket on Sunday mornings! I asked for something sentimental this year and he didn't disappoint. It was eight years ago that he gave me a jacket for Christmas ( a white Columbia jacket that I returned cuz really, who can keep a white coat white?) Each time I slip into the satiny sweetness of my new jacket I'll be reminded of our first Christmas together.


















After a good nap we packed up the puppy, the kids, and the rest of the gear and headed to Grandpa and Grandpa's house again.
This time the house would be full of cousins for Sam and Julia to play
with. Can you tell how excited Julia was about that?


Brian's parent's have the perfect sledding hill right out their front door and Gene kept everyone warm with a fire at the top of the hill. Inside things were heating up between the youngest of the cousins.




















Jacob and Julia,
sitting in a chair,












K-I-S-S-I-N-G



Both kids shared their musical talents with our extended family - sometimes with clothes on, sometimes without. It was so sweet to hear Sam singing Silent Night, Away in the Manger, Joy to the World, Frosty the Snowman, and Up on the Housetop. He's knew Silent Night last year, but all the other's he learned this year. Julia's performance during Brian's reading of the Christmas story will be relived for years to come. She plopped herself down in the middle of the living room so her dress poofed up behind her. Then she fell over and grabbed her toes saying, "tooties, tooties" over and over again - all the while displaying zero modesty as her bum and belly were exposed for all to see.




It was 10:30 before we went downstairs to crawl into our sleeping bags and after 11:30 before Sam fell asleep. There were about 20 tense minutes where we didn't know if anyone in the house was going to get any sleep, but then Julia fell asleep in my arms and turned into a limp noodle so I could transfer her to the pack-n-play. Sam watched Rudolf on our mini DVD player twice and then gave up and went to sleep (tucked warmly in his new sleeping bag). In the morning we enjoyed watching the kids discover their toys from Santa. Sam had asked for a toy train earlier in December and then sent him a second letter when his helicopter broke. Simple, handmade toys will bring hours of fun for years to come. I still have my wooden trucks my Uncle Mark made me when I was a kid. There were stockings to look in upstairs as well before gorging
ourselves on cinnamon rolls, tangerines, and juice. It took Brian at least ten trips to get things loaded in the van before we could leave. All Brian and I wanted for Christmas Day were long winter naps and eventually our overtired children gave in. We woke to the most beautiful snow I've ever seen. It looked like we were in the center of a snow globe the way the flakes floated to the ground. The wind from Sunday was long gone and for the first time in 55 years the Twin Cities saw 4+ inches of Christmas snow. Sam caught his first flakes on his tongue.
A quiet sled ride through the woods on Christmas Day and warm hot chocolate when we came inside was the perfect end to a merry, meaningful, and very memorable Christmas.













We didn't have much money to put towards Christmas this year, but the important things don't come from a store anyway. I pray that Sam and Julia will look back someday at all these pictures (and the 240 I didn't post) and see that too. Do you think the grin on my face can get any bigger?

Counting down

It's almost time to celebrate Jesus' birthday!!! I don't know about you, but at our house it can't get here soon enough!

Making memories - Christmas cookie edition

You ain't seen nothing yet

This wasn't the only cookie to succumb to the cookie monster Julia
tonight, but because I have to resize each picture and upload into a slide show, it's going to take me a day or two to share any more of tonight's tasty treats.

Wordless Wednesday

Away in a Manger

I read Lots of Scotts religiously. JMom is the mom of triplet three year olds. I am inspired by her writing every single day. Today she posted about how her family is staying focused on the real meaning of Christmas - a difficult thing with young children. I encourage you to hop over and see what she's shared. Even the comments she received are insightful and encouraging. I look forward to hearing what her other readers do to celebrate the birth of our savior. She and I both have child friendly manger scenes that are played with often, but only in my ceramic set does the baby Jesus wait to make his appearance until Christmas Eve. I don't regret letting them have the wooden baby Jesus out - especially when I hear Julia say JeJe for Jesus and then give Him a kiss.



Only 14 months and already she knows to put the angel on top. Uh....but what's the camel doing up there too, my dear sweet baby girl?



We do the Santa Claus thing too and it's amazing how quickly they pick up on that sort of thing. Julia just about runs to the tv when the opening music for Rudolf starts. We hang stockings (handmade by me - a tradition passed down from my Grandma). We visit Santa at the Mall, we read secular Christmas stories, but I'm trying very hard to always talk about the real meaning of Christmas. I am going to incorporate the Jesse Tree devotions into our advent calendar this year. With no energy to be crafty or the time with Brian being gone some much this week, I will simply use the pieces we have to put on what is intended to be a Christmas tree advent calendar and read/talk/pray with Sam.

What are your traditions for Christmas? Do tell! Even if you've never commented before - tis the season after all.

Here are a few photographs of the kids from my never-ending quest for a Christmas card picture. It was fun to sit back and observe them interact. One minute they are playing sweetly and the next Mary is transformed into a battering ram, aimed right at Sam's nose.














Aren't Sam's PJ's the cutest? I love the butt flap!

Missing: two sets of angel wings

Julia sported the classic Christmas pageant halo today while we helped decorate our church for Christmas. It takes a pretty big crew to assemble the 40 foot tree that stands in the sanctuary and while I don't know that I did much to help other than take photographs, this was a tradition we wanted the kids to participate in this year.

A halo and wings would have looked perfect on Sam today. He was quite the little helper. Even when things slowed down he was asking to get back to work and hand up more branches. Sorry I can't share a picture of the finished product.

Over the hills and through the woods

There was just enough snow to get our Christmas tree this morning. Don't get me wrong, plenty of snow is falling but driving out to the country to cut the tree and getting home in case Brian has to work today meant we had to leave Church early and hustle out the Grandma and Grandpa's for the tree. Grandpa did a wonderful job "planting" the tree for the kids to find.
"That tree looks nice!" said Sam with his as he shielded his face from the driving icey pellets. Hearing those words made all the effort worth it - even the flat tire Brian discovered as he was loading the van to go home.




We let Daddy and Grandpa do all the hard work while we supervised from afar. Poor Sam didn't like the wind one bit. Julia didn't seem to mind. She was busy trying to figure out where her hands went, why she couldn't put her arms down at her side normally, and how one minute she knew how to walk and the next her feet were shoved into boots four sizes to big which made it impossible to move. Thanks for everything Grandma and Grandpa!






You can see in his eyes how miserable he is. He even turned down a second cookie! (That orange pants wearing boy is you, Kieran!)



Can't wait to get it in the house and decorate it...tomorrow. I just got the call that Brian has to plow the rest of the day/night. Poor guy.