The Joy

I really only posted pictures of Christmas but did not say too much about what the season held for us. It really was quiet and joyful around here and we loved it. The weeks previous Miriam began skipping everywhere. The excitement brewed out of her little body like a light. She was so excited about Santa and reindeer that she could barely contain it. Rebekah was so sweet and was the dutiful big sister who taught Miriam everything she needed to know about Christmas time. Although, Rebekah this year made a leap in her Christmas joy. She really began to understand that Christmas is really about the Savior and that was wonderful to see. When she woke up Christmas morning she came in bright eyed into our room and announced....that it was Jesus' birthday. She was darling about it.
Some of my favorite things this year was the girls getting into the giving attitude. The girls made gifts for each other. Rebekah made Miriam hair bows (She picked out the ribbon and flowers and helped cut and glue) and Miriam made Bekah bean bags (she picked out the fabric and I sewed and she filled them with beans). Also, regularly the girls would find items around the house and wrap them up and deliver them to someone in the house and watch them unwrap a their gift. My favorite was when Miriam wrapped up a few pieces of Christmas chocolate and brought them to Glenn and said Merry Christmas Daddy. As he opened the chocolates she said..."you can open them but don't eat them because those are mine." We laughed pretty hard. We also went through lots of tape, but I didn't not want to stop the fun. Another of my favorite things was our qualitree, which was inspired by Mike our Brother-in-law. We made a tree and put a picture of the Savior at the top. We all wrote quality's of the Savior on a paper ornament and then hung it on the tree. And throughout the season those who entered our home got to add their own ornament. It helped our family realize that Christmas is about Christ and help our children learn about the qualities of Christ as we read stories about him to them and remarks from General authorities about Christmas and Christ they were able to learn more. I think it is a tradition we will keep.
We also watched several Church Christmas movies. Our favorite is Mr. Crougars Christmas. And lots of Santa Christmas movies. We made cookies and delivered them with the girls to all our friends. We re-enacted the nativity several times with Marcus as baby Jesus each time. We also spent Christmas Eve at our friends house with the Missionaries and ate good food and had lots of fun. Christmas Day we just spent all to ourselves and enjoyed every minute. The girls were so enthused about Santa and opening presents. We ate a delicious Christmas breakfast after and then played with toys and napped before Christmas dinner. The best part of it all was that everything was so calm since we didn't travel and that took a lot of stress out of Christmas. So wonderful!!! I can't wait until next year.


The Qualitree and wrapping gifts.