Our 1st blessing of this Christmas season was that Hubby got to be home with us on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, since this is not always the case, we were very excited :) I love traditions and we usually have to do ones that work "on the go" too, but this was the 1st year Brother started anticipating what was next. Hubby was home this year, but we had opted to help serve at our church Christmas morning, so we still opted for doing most of our Christmas traditions the night before.
We always attend one of the Christmas Eve services at church. Brother was old enough to sit with us this year and Sister had a good friend to play with in the nursery, so it worked out great :) Before we left Hubby stayed behind for a few minutes and put all the gifts into place. (We had to be out of the house by 9:30am the next day, so mainly for timesake we thought it would be fun to do the gifts on Christmas Eve. Plus we were heading straight from church to Hubby's parents and then my family, so we wanted them to have a chance to play with them.) The service was at 3:30pm, so our plan was to surprise them with presents, cook a huge breakfast for dinner and hang out for the rest of the evening. It was perfect!
Our kids each get 3 presents, since that is how many Jesus got on his birthday. (And they each pick out for one each other.)
The kids were so surprised when we got home and Brother made us laugh b/c he decided, in his 5 year old mind, that Jesus must have left them for us. We don't really "do" Santa at our house. We talk about him and recognize him, but we try to teach our kids that Santa loves Jesus and he is helping kids who need him. We say that anyone can be a "Santa" when we help someone in need or give presents out of love to the people we care about. We did do our stockings in the morning, so I would assume if they think Santa left anything it would be that. ha! It gets a little confusing when people ask them about it, but they roll with it pretty well. I just remind them who the season is all about :)
Christmas Eve picture and silly picture :) I still had them open their pjs first and put them on before we could open anything else!
Sweet kiddos ;) (Notice the "Y" above their heads? It is our 2011 family ornament. I had a really tough time finding all of our initials this year, like I usually do, so I got the "Y" and 4 white snowflakes to go with. I love it!)
They were happy posing for pictures...yay Christmas spirit!
1st gift (besides the pjs) were the gifts they got for each other... Snow White costumer for Sister and Hal-E-Copter (Rescue Hero) for Brother. My mistake letting her open that 1st, she wanted to be Snow White the rest of the night... I have to persuade her to wait until after brinner.
**We don't have pictures of them opening the big presents. hmm... I think we were videotaping the entire time. Silly us! The rundown is as follows -
Brother (1) Leapster (2) Jake Justice (Rescue Hero) (3) Lego Table
Sister (1) Snap &Style Doll Closet (2) Baby Doll (3) Baby Doll furniture
After that they had a few presents to open from their cousins. A cute outfit for Sister and a new "big boy" toothbrush for Brother. Love it!
Hubby's turn!
Go Daddy Go!
Denim Chore Coat for work...yay! (He pretty much knew it was coming...it can be hard to surprise him with work stuff :)
Perfect fit.
Mommy's turn...Bath & Body Works is always good :)
Hubby also got me a new personalized door mat and cross. I LOVED them. It was a great idea. (That is Brother's lego table next to me...Hubby did a great job on that too :)
Sister's baby doll & furniture. This little set was perfect. It has a bed, bath tub, kitchen and baby seat. We are going to let Sister keep it in her room. She loves it!
My cross...isn't it beautiful?!
Hubby's next box...boxers and undershirts. (I was trying to throw him off a little, but he did really need them :)
We had the big surprise coming next. The KIDS and I had kept it a secret for almost a month! They did SO good. We found the grill he wanted at Lowe's in November and have been hiding it at a friend's house. They dropped it off yesterday and I made a hole for it in the garage. He had NO idea. I love surprises! It is SO fun! Picture is Brother explaining how we surprised him...ha!
Yay! We ended our night going to be a little early and looking forward to serving at church in the AM. It was a wonderful night. I am truly blessed by the family the Lord has given me.
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