Christmas 2011

For Christmas this year we stayed here at home.  It was a bit sad not being with family during the holidays but it was wonderful to be in our home with just our little family.  Nathan is at such a fun age for the whole Christmas experience.  His favorite songs are now Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, or the Baby Jesus Song (not a specific song, just one that has the word "Jesus" in it).
Every year we've been married we try to do some service as a family before Christmas and this year was no different.  We were able to bring Nathan and Abby and pick up and deliver food to some families in need - Nathan was excited to be "Jesus's and Santa's Helper".  Then Christmas Eve morning we helped clean our church building.  The kids tolerated it well and then were super happy when we played in the gym after we were done - Nathan was in heaven playing basketball with Dad :)
Christmas Eve was relaxing.  We had dinner together, ate some of "Baby Jesus's Birthday Cake" (cheesecake) and read the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures while Nathan acted it all out with his little Nativity set.
In my family it's a tradition to open up one present on Christmas Eve, so Nathan and Abby chose to open some from my sister and her husband.  The look on Nathan's face was priceless :)

Then it really got fun :)
We wrote a note to Santa and set out a plate of cookies and carrots.

 Then Nathan heard Santa come! While we were reading a book Nathan heard jingling bells outside (Chris did a great job) and looked up and said "SANTA!" We went outside to look and sure enough Santa had landed on our roof! Nathan was so excited he hurried to bed so Santa could bring the presents.  It is so much fun being parents!
Christmas morning was great.  Nathan loved pulling everything out of the stockings and opening up all his presents.

The first present he picked to open was a pair of pants...disappointing :) He took one look at them and said "That's not a car" and threw them down and picked up another present. 
Abby loved opening up the presents.

She's so good at it too. She was happy with her toys, but was mostly excited for everything Nathan got....but let's just say they both got some wonderful things.

This was one of my favorite gifts my parents to the kids---what are you trying to say Mom? :)

After Church the kids came home and took naps (Hallelujah for being home from church in time for nap! What a wonderful Christmas present!), we skpyed with family, ate dinner, more skyping, more "Baby Jesus cake", and then it was bedtime...phew...
Many thanks to the other "Santas" who made Christmas wonderful for our kids.  We love you and are grateful for your love and generosity.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!