Christmas 2010

Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year!
As a child I remember loving Christmas. All the anticipation and excitement. But as I got older, Christmas lost some of its magic. Now, having my own children, I think this is one of my favorite holidays. I can feel that magic again. I love Santa, putting up the tree and the decorations, and the lights.
We do try to keep Christ in Christmas. I love the nativity, but having one displayed in our home is difficult because my children break EVERYTHING!! My dad painted a beautiful ceramic nativity for us but I am afraid to display it now for fear of it being destroyed. So we purchased
a Fisher-Price one, just to have something to put out. The kids loved it, and it worked great
because they could play with it and not break anything. Love it! Even Wolverine went to visit baby Jesus. Jake also had interesting ways to play with the set. He liked to line up everything and put it in a circle. I am still impressed by his circle making ability with toys.
The nativity was our only decoration, besides the tree. This does make me sad, but hopefully one day we will be able to get out the other decorations again.
I honestly think I get more excited than the kids. I wake up at 4
am and lay in bed, trying to go back to sleep until the kids wake up. I can't help it! I love seeing their little faces light up. By 7, Matt usually says we can wake them up. It takes a minute for them to realize that it is Christmas and they have presents under the tree. But then they run out, dressed in their new pajamas from the night before, and I can feel the excitement bursting from them.
I do also love making gingerbread houses. Matt bought me a kit
that was a lot of fun to make. Once made though, it is hard to
keep little hands off it. I was keeping the house on the fridge to display for a little while but needed to do some cleaning in the kitchen. I thought by putting the house on the piano it would be safe. I was wrong. Sometimes I forget that my kids can climb. Well, Spencer found the house and started biting the candy off. I had to laugh.
As you will notice, there are no decorations on our tree, but lights. They broke the glass balls, so I got plastic, and somehow they managed to break those too. So the tree is bare. They can't
leave the stockings alone either. Jake is displaying one way they play with them. Sometimes they put the stockings on their feet as well. Christmas eve we are looking for the stockings to put back by the fireplace for Santa to fill.
I love the holidays and I love my family, and despite my kids craziness, I love that I get to have them in my life.
Merry Christmas!!

The boys in thier new pajamas

Opening gifts on Christmas