Christmas finally came

We had a wonderful Christmas at our home.  We have been blessed beyond belief.  We made sure that Rhone knew he didn't get to run out and look at the gifts without waking up Mom and Dad first.  Growing up, we always had a family prayer on Christmas morning before opening gifts and I think that is an important tradition to carry on.  We headed out to see if Santa came as a family (well Sylvie was still sleeping sweetly in her crib).  Rhone played with his Santa gifts and opening his stocking.  When Sylvie finally woke up,we had a yummy french toast casserole hot out of the oven.  Sylvie got a turn to play with her gifts from Santa.  After that we opened gifts, face timed with family, and just enjoyed our whole day together as a family.  It was a pretty low key Christmas, but it was perfect for our little family and it was fun watch Sylvie celebrate her first Christmas.  (See the funny picture of Rhone holding up undies.  We are working on being grateful for all gifts that we receive. He laughed and said that was so silly of that elf :)

Christmas Eve

We had our own little Christmas Eve celebration.  We cooked our nice meal on Christmas Eve this year, so on Christmas Day we could just enjoy the day and left overs.  We had clues set out for Rhone about the symbols of Christmas to go on a hunt to find thier gifts (always jammies).  We spent some time with our little people Nativity Set talking about the Saviors birth and we talked about the similarities between Jesus and Santa.  Finally the kids got to open 2 more presents.  They each got a dream light and a fleece disney blanket with a character and their names on it for bed.  We snuggled on the couch and watched a movie all together and then headed to bed.  Every Christmas Eve when I look around in the quiet of our home, I am in awe of the goodness of life and all the blessings God has given our little family.  

A Birthday Party

I tried hard to make sure that Christmas is about the Saviors birth, not Santa.  It's hard with little ones and the Santa excitement.  This year we did a few fun activities and we decided to have a birthday party for Jesus.  Rhone was pretty pretty excited about this.  I made this delicious chocolate cake (absolutely worth all the work).  We invited our neighbors over to help us celebrate.  They have 5 kids, so that makes it feel like a real party.  All the younger kids took a turn blowing out candles.  Fun to celebrate with friends and nice to have a night about being together and remember our blessings instead of worrying about toys and gifts.

Santa rolled through the neighborhood on a fire truck one evening.  I went out in my skiing base layer, not realizing the whole neighborhood would be there.  I am sure I made an impression in my wool socks and tights.  Ha.  Rhone went right up to Santa and hugged him.  Sylvie cried.

Jesus' birthday cake

The candle blowing party.

Sylvie's 1st Christmas ornament.

My adorable kids being silly.

Trying to get a picture.  We took so many.  This one is especially funny.

We finally got an adorable one.  Notice that it's a different Sunday!  Doesn't Sylvie look grown up here?