Christmas 2009

This year was the first time we have ever celebrated Christmas with just our Joseph and Amy Lee Family. While we missed our extended family tremendously, it was a peaceful, relaxing and wonderful time for us to focus on each of our children and to teach them more about why we celebrate Christmas. Both of our families carry out traditions of re-enacting the Nativity, and they always have a great spirit about them, a little fun and spiritual mixed together, but doing it on our own allowed us the time to reflect a little more together in a more intimate setting without all the hustle and bustle. We really enjoyed it. That's not to say it was the most spiritual of experiences. (The costumes are evidence alone). But we enjoyed our first experience being just together. Joseph took charge of finding costumes while I finished the dishes from our Christmas Eve dinner. I'll try to give you the reasoning behind each outfit. Most of it was just plain him having a fun time. Isaac is a shepherd...I think Joseph thought the Peter Pan costume was as close to a shepherd as he was going to get. Aaron was also a shepherd, wait no, I guess he would have been Joseph, because he kept saying all night, "I not Joseph, I Aaron, YOU Joseph Dad!"....not quite sure how the reindeer tie fits in, but his headress looks the part. Abby was Mary....probably the most apporopriate costume, though possibly a little too glamourous. Brynn was the donkey...she tried to find an outfit of complete gray to play the part. Joseph was the wise man....his explanation for the cycling jersey was that the wise-men wore brightly colored and adorned clothing.

Throughout the night we had fun checking to see where Santa was on NORADS website. Once he hit Ohio and started moving toward the midwestern states, the kids decided they should get ready for bed before he reached the west coast.

We read a few Christmas stories and watched the Liken Scriptures~Christmas Story, and The Nativity produced by the Church.

The kids were practicially begging to go to bed. They put out their cookies and wrote a message to Santa, said their prayers and then were off to let sugar plums dance in their heads. They were excited, but they knew that Santa only visits children who are fast asleep in their beds. We were even able to go to sleep at a very reasonable hour. We prepared our gifts to the kids a few nights before, so Joseph and I sat up and by the light of the tree talked about Christmas memories from our childhood. It was magical. We made sure that we were in bed before Santa made his stop.

On Christmas morning, the kids woke us up by coming in and screaming "He came! He came!" "How do you know!?" we asked. "Because he wrapped both entryways to the living room with wrapping paper!"

Aaron came running in a few minutes later and exclaimed, "Santa came! Santa came! Be bwrought me a bike!" (he peeked under the wrapped walkway). We all got up and let Isaac crawl through the doorway into the room. The kids were as pleased as can be. Aaron stole the show with his squeels about his new Lightning McQueen bike. Brynn was pleased about Katelyn's new bed (the one she really hoped for) and Abby was amazed that Santa was able to find a Kirsten doll when American Girl said they were back-ordered until June. ;) Isaac loved the boxes and cars and balls and tried to imitate everyone else's squeals. He also thought he would try Abby's new doll beds. Luckily, they are sturdy and he doesn't weigh too much.

Joseph and I surprised them with Hoberman Spheres. We saw them in a science store one time and they have provided literally hours of entertainment.

After we opened gifts, we enjoyed a brunch of homemade quiche, orange juice, fruit and cranberry-orange white chocolate chip-English Scones. They were really yummy. I made homemade lemon curd and devonshire cream to dip them in. We weren't hungry for the rest of the day. It was yummy! We relaxed and played the entire day. Joseph took the kids to the park to ride bikes while I stayed home with Isaac and took a nap. It was a great day!