Christmas Day 2012

The tradition that starts off Christmas: waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Dada to light the candles on Jesus' birthday cake so we can sing to Him as we walk up the stairs and blow out His candles.

Pella's still watching the cake.

Reading Luke Chapter 2, Jesus' birthday story, comes next!

Then it's time to open some stockings! They were pretty excited for that part.

Cuddle time with Grandma and Grandpa after a breakfast of Swiss eggs, waiting for everyone to be ready to open the presents under the tree.

The kids all go shopping separately with Dada at the Dollar Tree during December to buy presents for each other. They are so cute to watch as they give each other their gifts, and watch for the look of excitement when their siblings open their gift. The sweetest part is the gratefulness and hugs of appreciation.

This boy receives so much joy every time he gives.

Opal gave us this cutest homemade nativity. We worked for about 4 weeks on them at Cubbies. Having 30 kids sculpt them out of clay and painting took a while, but they turned out so cute.

Playing with all the gifts and watching what's going on at Poppie and Nonnie's house via technology.

We were so excited to get the gift of giving from Grandpa and Grandpa. Each kid was able to give a family in need 8 chickens - that's 48 chickens!! We prepared the kids for this and talked a lot about giving instead of getting; how so many families around the world live differently than we do and we can help. We watched World Vision videos of families receiving animals to help them and it stuck. They were so happy to help others and Dada and I were so happy to not have way too much "stuff" coming into our very tiny house! Grandma and Grandpa gave them each a tasty little chicky cookie too.

 We played games, played with toys and babies and ate a delicious turkey dinner with our family to celebrate the rest of the day. It was fun, relaxing and peaceful. Dada had to work on Christmas this year, so he was in and out most of the day, but we did get to have the morning with him and that was wonderful.