Merry Christmas!

How can it be Christmas already? We wait for it for so long, and then its over and done so quickly and your anxious to get onto the next thing. It's 5:30 at night for us right now and it feels like 10:30. We're exhausted, but can't put the kids to bed yet! Ack! Good thing we got some new movies for the kids this morning, its an excellent way to keep them quiet and happy at the same time.

Marc had the day off for Christmas Eve. I think he was a little disappointed that we spent a good portion of it cleaning, organizing and running errands, but that's just what happens some times! We had kind of a different night. We usually hunker down by ourselves for Christmas Eve and do a special family home evening of types, but this year we ended up going over to my brother's house to have a "night in Bethlehem". We ate foods that would have been found in Bethlehem at the time of the Savior's birth (fish, chicken, unleavened bread, olives, etc). We ate around candlelight & could have used our hands to eat if we had wanted. We then dressed the kids up and acted out the nativity while singing a few Christmas Carols. The kids loved it! We left early and came home to unwrap one present, Christmas Pajamas. The kids were so excited about them, and they loved that they all had matching pajamas. We got them off to bed and started preparations for the morning. We have a blueberry french toast that we make every year and it takes awhile to cut up all the bread and cream cheese for it. It sits overnight and then we bake it in the morning while we're opening presents. Finally, the munchkins were asleep and Santa could deliver the presents. Seems like no matter how much preparation is done beforehand, we're always up later than we want to be. After the stockings were stuffed with care, we were finally able to slip into bed and wait for the excitement of the morning.

Tyler was up extra early, but we were able to get him back to bed so the others could sleep a little longer. When everyone was up, we called my parents and they came over, and Marc called his parents and they watched the kids open up presents on the webcam. Lexi was as happy as could be to just sit on my Dad's lap and have him open up all her presents for her. She received a baby doll from Santa, some bottles from my parents, and a stroller from Marc's parents. Tyler and Bryce had WAY too many presents to open. We had decided that they would get 1 present from Santa, 2-3 from us, and give one to each other. Our family & friends and even a primary teacher decided to spoil them rotten this year and they each had a sizeable amount of presents which quickly went from everyone unwrapping one at a time to Tyler and Bryce just opening at the same time so we could get through them. They are each developing their own taste of toys.
Tyler definitely had an airplane themed Christmas. An airplane from Santa, airplanes from his brother, a helicopter from his grandparents, and an aircraft carrier from us. He was one happy boy. Bryce had puzzles from Santa & his grandparents, legos from his grandparents & us, cars from his brother, and a train from his Grandma. He is happy to sit and build whether its tracks, towers, castles, ramps, or whatever he can imagine. He is an impressive builder and its amazing what creations he can come up with.
Lexi was thrilled with her new baby and clung close to it most of the day. She enjoyed terrorizing her brothers' new toys and getting into all the Christmas candy. She didn't cause too much trouble today which is always a good thing :)
We are grateful for this Christmas Season. We are grateful to spend so much time teaching and learning about the Savior's Birth. My kids know the story of Santa very well, but they have developed a great love for the Nativity and the story of Jesus. Christmas Eve is always such a joy to me, because that's when we really spend time together remembering Jesus and His life. It is our strongest tradition. Christmas morning is fun, and there's much excitement and preparation for it, but in the long run, it's the time we spent remembering our Savior through our traditions and stories is what stays with us the most. Hope you all had a joyous and very Merry Christmas!