Christmas 2009

Christmas has come and gone. Oh how time passes quickly when you are having so much fun. It really is a fun time of year. It is a time for traditions old and new, a time for family, a time for fun and imagination, and of course it is a time to reflect on the most precious gift of all, our Savior. It has been a most wonderful year full of exciting adventures and much celebration and how we love to end it with the fun activities of Christmas. Most years, I really don't stress about the happenings of Christmas, but this year I was definitely much more busy in preparations, whether it was from substituting daily, family, or church. With all that going on though, we made it through, and I do believe the kids had a blast, and of course, can't wait for next year's festivities to begin. Every year on Christmas Eve, we make cookies for Santa. When I first started doing this with the kids years before, it always was a huge mess and I would end up doing most of it. Now my kids are older and they get along quite well. I only have to make the dough and they do the rest. They always pick out two of their favorites for Santa, which is a total of six cookies for him and then the rest are for us to eat. I think that might be their favorite part.

Christmas day!! I really thought I might be able to sleep in longer, but no why would I even think that. 6 AM comes and the kids jump on us and tell us all about Santa and how much he left us. Now I remember trying this on my parents, but somehow they seemed to make us wait 'til about 9 or 10 while they slept. That doesn't seem to work for our family. The kids definitely have rule on Christmas Day.

This year Megan had asked a lot of questions about Santa. You know, at age 9, she hears a lot at school. I told her, it is up to her if she is ready to grow up, or if she still wants to believe in magic. She said, " I'm not ready to grow up." I have to say, that is OK by me. We just left it at that. I do believe, she had a very magical day.

Emilee is my child that every year lately, it seems she wants Santa to bring her the most expensive toys he might have. I always try and tell her that Santa can't bring everything, and he knows what parents can handle in their homes. She finally settled on one of the newer webkinz that is out. She opened the box and screamed a loud scream and showed us that Santa brought her the caterpillar webkinz that she desired. That Santa, how does he always know?

Hunter is a smart fellow. We have been trying to get him to stop sucking his thumb. I have tried to bribe him with this Bumblebee Transformer helmet and do you know what he said? "Mommy, I don't need to stop sucking my thumb, Santa will get me the helmet". That Santa couldn't resist and gave him the helmet. I guess I can bribe him with the Optimus Prime helmet instead.

It was a great Christmas, with lots of fun. The most important part was teaching my children about their Savior, and how they need to remember him always, and be very thankful for the gift that he gave us. How grateful I am for that and that I know he knows me and my family very well.