Oh, joy! Christmas Eve has arrived! We are ready! The work it takes to pull this day off has increased loads and loads. I do this to myself. But, it is worth the planning, stewing, fussing, sneaking and shopping. The days leading up to Christmas break were crazy! The kids needed so many things to bring to school, teacher gifts and programs, I was really looking forward to slowing things down. This is my personal deadline to be ready as well, so the break was welcome to us all.
Christmas Eve we went bowling to burn off some of the excitement and to fill the time until evening. Soon enough, it was time to pile in the car and see the lights! The Taylor's joined us again. Driving through and seeing the familiar displays, I just can't believe it has already been an entire year!
Our house was soon filled with Grandparents Taylor's and Geertsen's, the Whitmore's arrived as us and the Taylor's arrived for a yummy Christmas Eve dinner, icing cookies for Santa and the Christmas Eve program. Lot's of squealing!
I love having the house full of family, kids and all that yummy excitement! Soon it was time for everyone to head home to their Christmas houses while we finished up the evening gathered around our tree. We opened the gifts from eachother, Granny and Granpa, and the much anticipated Christmas Eve jammies and cozy robes!
The house was filled with that magic of Christmas as the kids were tucked into bed. I am just as excited! Eeeeeeeeee!
Boy, does morning come fast! (yaaaaaaawn) The kids were bouncing off the walls and so excited to get downstairs and see what had been left. Is there ever a more exciting moment than this???
I love Christmas Day! I love Christmas break, for that matter. All the rushing about is done, and nothing left to do but lounge in PJ's and enjoy the chaos.
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| Eli's Lego castle. This took him days to build, and was super neat! |
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| This took seconds to destroy by little brother and days to rebuild, with help from Dad. |
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| Adren with his Lego creation. |
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| Notice he's making the same poses? |
What a blessing to have my sweet family around, and the house filled with the peace and Joy the holidays bring. I never dreamed I would live such a blessed life. I was chatting with the kids about how sometimes it's fun to not have something in particular to wish for, that sometimes just being
surprised you find you get something even better than what you could have wished for. I found that to be true with my life. It's turned out even better than what I wished for. The love I feel from my Savior is so strong as it surrounds me. I know He Lives! I know he loves me and watches over me. I feel it so strongly as I am surrounded by my happy family. I know by living my life, learning to love my Savior, I am happy and blessed in more ways than I thought could make me happy. Merry Christmas!
I love having the house full of family, kids and all that yummy excitement! Soon it was time for everyone to head home to their Christmas houses while we finished up the evening gathered around our tree. We opened the gifts from eachother, Granny and Granpa, and the much anticipated Christmas Eve jammies and cozy robes!
The house was filled with that magic of Christmas as the kids were tucked into bed. I am just as excited! Eeeeeeeeee!
Boy, does morning come fast! (yaaaaaaawn) The kids were bouncing off the walls and so excited to get downstairs and see what had been left. Is there ever a more exciting moment than this???
I love Christmas Day! I love Christmas break, for that matter. All the rushing about is done, and nothing left to do but lounge in PJ's and enjoy the chaos.
What a blessing to have my sweet family around, and the house filled with the peace and Joy the holidays bring. I never dreamed I would live such a blessed life. I was chatting with the kids about how sometimes it's fun to not have something in particular to wish for, that sometimes just being surprised you find you get something even better than what you could have wished for. I found that to be true with my life. It's turned out even better than what I wished for. The love I feel from my Savior is so strong as it surrounds me. I know He Lives! I know he loves me and watches over me. I feel it so strongly as I am surrounded by my happy family. I know by living my life, learning to love my Savior, I am happy and blessed in more ways than I thought could make me happy. Merry Christmas!